Totally agree on taxing undesirable behavior--everyone complains about 'traffic' and the potential traffic impacts of something. If noise/pollution was taxed appropriately perhaps traffic would be less of a concern.
A government needs to get revenue somehow and wages are just a very convenient way to do so. However, with all the modern technology that we have now, I think there are options available that are not being taken (such as fair land use tax with computer calculated values)
I think free speech is something to protect for humans, not for companies.
I can say "you should get the vaccine!" Companies that want to say these kinds of things have rules to abide by: and thanks fully so.
I'm much for free speech, but more in the sense that we should be able to discuss policy/politics/critique/bitch/bash/religions/etc. Not so we can make terror plans, defame, harass, bully and share child porn.
Not sure what happened to your cousin... But I'm curious now. Care to share?
I love seeing the anti-advertising sentiment bubbling up. Social media addiction, 24 hour political news bubbles, pharmaceutical companies spending more on ads than R&D, consumership-based lifestyles, etc. All of it is driven by advertising being an acceptable business model. And we haven't even touched on the aesthetic crime of fucking ads being pasted on every surface in public.
But here's a different take: unsolicited advertising is theft. It is the "fractional penny" heist perpetrated by the industrial advertising complex upon all of us, all of the time.
Hear me out. You have a finite amount of mental attention that you can give in any given environment. Advertising companies are selling access to bits and pieces of this finite resource of yours. Sometimes they do this with your consent in advertising supported products you seek out (e.g. free YouTube or Spotify) and this is fine.
But often you have not consented to spend your attention on their ads. You probably weren't laying on the beach, staring into the sky hoping to find the phone number of a personal injury attorney being towed behind an airplane. Or the latest weight loss drug plastered on the side of a city bus. Or 15 garbage pamphlets jammed into your mailbox.
There's a reason all the dystopian, sci-fi media shows the beleaguered protagonist assaulted with personalized ads in holograms and on every surface. Because that is exactly where we're headed just as soon as they figure out how to do it if we don't legislate this shit away.
This is the only inexcusable proposal of the three. The whole point of effective advertising is that you can't escape it, and it penetrates your brain even if you actively resist it.
We should outright forbid it in public space. IHMO.
Also I'd say lets only tax undesirable behaviour!
So not tax:
* wages
* having a house
* adding value (VAT)
But so tax:
* land use
* polluting
* packaging (could be part of polluting)
* accumulating profits at the top
This idea has some similarities to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism
Totally agree on taxing undesirable behavior--everyone complains about 'traffic' and the potential traffic impacts of something. If noise/pollution was taxed appropriately perhaps traffic would be less of a concern. A government needs to get revenue somehow and wages are just a very convenient way to do so. However, with all the modern technology that we have now, I think there are options available that are not being taken (such as fair land use tax with computer calculated values)
TIL about Georgism! Thanks. This is why I like HN discussions.
> We should outright forbid [advertising] in public space. IHMO.
My cousin died to protect your right to say this. Ads are speech too.
It's totally established precedent that billboards, signs, etc are limited. Whether they should be or not, I'm not sure, but that's how it is currently: https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/billboards/#:~:text=...
Are limited liability companies people ? Because to me, it seems they are considered people when it's beneficial, and not when it's not. Weird.
I think free speech is something to protect for humans, not for companies.
I can say "you should get the vaccine!" Companies that want to say these kinds of things have rules to abide by: and thanks fully so.
I'm much for free speech, but more in the sense that we should be able to discuss policy/politics/critique/bitch/bash/religions/etc. Not so we can make terror plans, defame, harass, bully and share child porn.
Not sure what happened to your cousin... But I'm curious now. Care to share?
6 replies →
I love seeing the anti-advertising sentiment bubbling up. Social media addiction, 24 hour political news bubbles, pharmaceutical companies spending more on ads than R&D, consumership-based lifestyles, etc. All of it is driven by advertising being an acceptable business model. And we haven't even touched on the aesthetic crime of fucking ads being pasted on every surface in public.
But here's a different take: unsolicited advertising is theft. It is the "fractional penny" heist perpetrated by the industrial advertising complex upon all of us, all of the time.
Hear me out. You have a finite amount of mental attention that you can give in any given environment. Advertising companies are selling access to bits and pieces of this finite resource of yours. Sometimes they do this with your consent in advertising supported products you seek out (e.g. free YouTube or Spotify) and this is fine.
But often you have not consented to spend your attention on their ads. You probably weren't laying on the beach, staring into the sky hoping to find the phone number of a personal injury attorney being towed behind an airplane. Or the latest weight loss drug plastered on the side of a city bus. Or 15 garbage pamphlets jammed into your mailbox.
There's a reason all the dystopian, sci-fi media shows the beleaguered protagonist assaulted with personalized ads in holograms and on every surface. Because that is exactly where we're headed just as soon as they figure out how to do it if we don't legislate this shit away.
I think it's simpler than that:
If watching ads is a valid way of "paying" for youtube, then what is the service/benefit you receive for watching ads in the sky?
At this point next week there will be an article titled “What if we averted our eyes from advertising?”
Truly a disastrous slippery slope.
"What if we looked at advertising, but not for too long?"
Just the intro and only for a second.
This is the only inexcusable proposal of the three. The whole point of effective advertising is that you can't escape it, and it penetrates your brain even if you actively resist it.