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E-mail tax? Good luck collecting.

May 29, 2009

One Edward Gottesman, "a lawyer and chairman of an international investment company," proposes a tax on email to raise money and "curb spam." Dr. Maule is not impressed. He starts with an obvious point:

Gottesman presumes that spammers will gladly pay the tax, or pay it at all. The same skills that spammers use to work around spam filters and to hide their identities will be put to work finding ways to avoid the tax. The last time I checked, the OECD does not have a bureau of tax collectors nor a standing army.

There is, of course, the little problem of the technological absurdity of the project, too.

Tags: maule.Spam.