Tax Those Bloggers, City of Philadelphia
Sunday, August 29th, 2010Bloggers in my hometown are up in arms because the City of Philadelphia is charging some of them a $300 lifetime “business privilege” tax. The city’s position is that many of the bloggers accept advertising revenue and are in effect operating a business within the city limits. “How can they do this,” the bloggers shriek. “This is a violation of free speech; it’s an outrage.”
To the City of Philadelphia I say: “Hip, hip hooray.”
Tax those guys. By doing so you’re actually helping small businesses, not hurting them. I support this tax of bloggers. (Actually, I think it’s too small.) If you’re going to have a blog and use it for your small business, you should pay a significantly higher tax. This way we can rid the world of lousy bloggers. We can save many small business owners a lot of time they’re now wasting by blogging. And those small business owners who don’t have a blog can stop feeling so guilty every time their technology guy tells them they should. Because they shouldn’t.
Why? Most small business blogs are terrible. Most business people [like me) don’t know how to write very well, even if they did get a B in 8th Grade English. Many small business owners are told by their IT advisors, marketing experts and public relations gurus that they should have a blog. The truth is that they really have nothing important to say. I don’t care if my office equipment supplier wants a free Tibet. I just want lower prices on ink toner. The City of Philadelphia is providing a service. They’re making us face the fact that most small business owners shouldn’t waste their time on a blog. Instead of writing about the state of society and whether Barack Obama is a Muslim (by the way, he’s…
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