Is it time for the entertainment industry to pay its fair share?

[Dial_tone]

Popcorn tax FTW!!!!

 

[mrplunkey]

I got no issue although I do see the slope (ie how do you know when you've gone too far...ie do you tax PBS or CSPAN?).

You'd have to tax all media, otherwise you're in the business of judging content.

 

[redsamurai]

Or how bout we just not let them make the shit in the first place? Taxing all media is not even a remotely logical idea, just throw it out. But remember what you're espousing here Plunk, you're in essence calling for more "gubment" regulation of an industry that is simply supplying demand. Slippery slope esse.

I just watched Dredd last night and while i was pleasantly surprised that it was way better than I thought it was going to be....I was also shocked at the gore, and it's not easy to shock me. There were slow mo shots of bullets entering and then exiting people's faces. Dude's were thrown down a 200 story atrium and were shown splatting on the ground. Don't know if that was all in the cinematic release but it is in the DVD. And it added nothing to the movie except the prurient effect. People getting shot as part of a coherent script i have no issue with, what I hate is showing blood and gore simply for the wow effect. This movie was released in 3-d in the theatres so i'm guessing those bullet scenes and slow mo splatter were there purely for the novelty of the 3-D. That we should just say no more too. And if people want to make it then yeah, they pay a gore tax and/or their movies only get shown in the cinema...no DVD release.

We're immersed in media and entertainment everywhere we go. That's a fact.

And the industry has brought us women who can't seem to get enough rough-and-dirty sex, friends who resolve all their interpersonal struggles within a 30-minute episode, and heroes who kill scores of villains with no legal or emotional consequences. Even the news media is to blame -- if it bleeds, it leads.

Does this cause all the ills of society today? Certainly not. But does it desensitize us to sociopathic behavior and increase violent urges? Yes, research has shown that it does. It doesn't mean it drives people to "go off", but it does seem to be a common denominator in some very antisocial behaviors.

So we've got a trillion-dollar industry to reaps profits at the expense of our citizens and leaves our families and broken health care system to deal with the consequences -- a classic example of a negative externality. We already tax other negative externalities:

- Tobacco is taxed specifically to recover some of the downstream health care costs.
- Cars that are deemed "gas guzzlers" are taxed specifically to recover their disparate impact on the environment.
- Firearms are hit with a "violence tax" to recover the cost of their periodic misuse
- Sugary drinks are taxed to compensate society for their contribution to obesity and diabetes.

So why not a modest (i.e. 5%-8%) tax on entertainment industry gross revenues? Why not tax movies, television... even news networks? The money could go into a mental health fund and help offset the downstream costs of identification and treatment of the mentally ill, particularly as it pertains to children.

Hollywood doesn't seem to have an issue with higher taxes anyway. Wouldn't this be a great way for them to contribute to the greater good? What's more important than the mental health of children?

 

[EnderJE]

You'd have to tax all media, otherwise you're in the business of judging content.

Then I'm good. Fair is fair.

 

[mrplunkey]

Or how bout we just not let them make the shit in the first place? Taxing all media is not even a remotely logical idea, just throw it out. But remember what you're espousing here Plunk, you're in essence calling for more "gubment" regulation of an industry that is simply supplying demand. Slippery slope esse.

I just watched Dredd last night and while i was pleasantly surprised that it was way better than I thought it was going to be....I was also shocked at the gore, and it's not easy to shock me. There were slow mo shots of bullets entering and then exiting people's faces. Dude's were thrown down a 200 story atrium and were shown splatting on the ground. Don't know if that was all in the cinematic release but it is in the DVD. And it added nothing to the movie except the prurient effect. People getting shot as part of a coherent script i have no issue with, what I hate is showing blood and gore simply for the wow effect. This movie was released in 3-d in the theatres so i'm guessing those bullet scenes and slow mo splatter were there purely for the novelty of the 3-D. That we should just say no more too. And if people want to make it then yeah, they pay a gore tax and/or their movies only get shown in the cinema...no DVD release.

My views reflect those of a changing electorate. Elections have consequences and people want more stuff -- like free mental health services. If an industry wants to profit by immersing us in sociopathic behavior, let them pay for the fallout.

 

[goin on 4T]

Sounds good, please post a letter and will all put it on our letterhead and send it to our federal representatives for them to act on.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

We're immersed in media and entertainment everywhere we go. That's a fact.

And the industry has brought us women who can't seem to get enough rough-and-dirty sex, friends who resolve all their interpersonal struggles within a 30-minute episode, and heroes who kill scores of villains with no legal or emotional consequences. Even the news media is to blame -- if it bleeds, it leads.

Does this cause all the ills of society today? Certainly not. But does it desensitize us to sociopathic behavior and increase violent urges? Yes, research has shown that it does. It doesn't mean it drives people to "go off", but it does seem to be a common denominator in some very antisocial behaviors.

So we've got a trillion-dollar industry to reaps profits at the expense of our citizens and leaves our families and broken health care system to deal with the consequences -- a classic example of a negative externality. We already tax other negative externalities:

- Tobacco is taxed specifically to recover some of the downstream health care costs.
- Cars that are deemed "gas guzzlers" are taxed specifically to recover their disparate impact on the environment.
- Firearms are hit with a "violence tax" to recover the cost of their periodic misuse
- Sugary drinks are taxed to compensate society for their contribution to obesity and diabetes.

So why not a modest (i.e. 5%-8%) tax on entertainment industry gross revenues? Why not tax movies, television... even news networks? The money could go into a mental health fund and help offset the downstream costs of identification and treatment of the mentally ill, particularly as it pertains to children.

Hollywood doesn't seem to have an issue with higher taxes anyway. Wouldn't this be a great way for them to contribute to the greater good? What's more important than the mental health of children?

The problem is, that's not solving anything. It's just a band-aid burden on everyone who can enjoy the stuff without turning into a degenerate. The solution is to raise our standards as a society, and it starts with better parents who actively teach what's most important in life.

But it probably won't happen as easily as everyone wants. Well, tough shit. "Easy" is largely what's caused all these problems in the first place.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

We should tax the entertainment industry for immersing us in violence and fucking us all up.

Human beings are naturally prone to violence with or without media's help though. If anything media has done more to passivize us and make us lethargic. I doubt any society as powerful and capable as ours puts up with more shit. is our attitude.

I mean, just witness how much pull the government has leveraged over us already. We've been frogs in a pot of water for the better part of a century now, and every year it's getting closer and closer to cooking us all.

 

[redsamurai]

My views reflect those of a changing electorate. Elections have consequences and people want more stuff -- like free mental health services. If an industry wants to profit by immersing us in sociopathic behavior, let them pay for the fallout.

Or we just not let them make it in the first place. There is simply no way to keep this shit out of the hands of kids. Not in this society, not anymore. Parents throughout the entire socio-economic strata are completely unwilling to properly raise their children so they left it up to marketers, as evidenced by the Lanza's who were "very" well off. The Aurora dude also came from a similiar if not slightly less background then the Lanza's. So you have to just take it away period. My generation still plays these games with perspective, but the younger kids....Call of Duty clans are their life. They play it like a full time job. So it sucks, but games like that have to be toned way the fuck down if not eliminated completely. Just taxing them doesn't solve shit because the mental health industry will only absorb these kids once they've already done something which is obviously too late. All your tax is going to do is supply "da gubment" with more revenue which they will apply only a small percentage of that to the actual problem they instituted the tax for in the first place. C'mon you know that's how it works.

 

[mrplunkey]

Or we just not let them make it in the first place. There is simply no way to keep this shit out of the hands of kids. Not in this society, not anymore. Parents throughout the entire socio-economic strata are completely unwilling to properly raise their children so they left it up to marketers, as evidenced by the Lanza's who were "very" well off. The Aurora dude also came from a similiar if not slightly less background then the Lanza's. So you have to just take it away period. My generation still plays these games with perspective, but the younger kids....Call of Duty clans are their life. They play it like a full time job. So it sucks, but games like that have to be toned way the fuck down if not eliminated completely. Just taxing them doesn't solve shit because the mental health industry will only absorb these kids once they've already done something which is obviously too late. All your tax is going to do is supply "da gubment" with more revenue which they will apply only a small percentage of that to the actual problem they instituted the tax for in the first place. C'mon you know that's how it works.

So no more...

- First person shooters
- "Kill Bill"-style movies
- Horror flicks
- Movies promoting promiscuity and hyper-sexuality
- Pornos
- Lead stories in the media glorifying the 0.000000000001% of people who died a horrific death that day
...

And who in your master plan gets to decide what gets made and what doesn't?