Quotes That Have Annoyed Me Today
Posted 16 February 2009 in Reading by Catriona
My Gmail programme runs unobtrusive banner advertisements across the top of the page.
Sometimes, these frustrate me beyond measure, as when, on the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, I was offered “fantastic” deals on “Impeach Obama” T-shirts. Clearly, my e-mail programme—which, if it were sentient, would know me as well as anyone, being privy to most of my everyday communication—doesn’t have the faintest idea about my political leanings. It probably doesn’t care, either.
Sometimes they bewilder me, as when they declared that dictionary.com’s “Word of the Day” was “obscure,” which really isn’t that (forgive me) obscure a word.
But today they’ve annoyed me. Not much, just a mild degree of annoyance.
Today, I have a quote of the day from Charles Kettering: “Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax.”
Well, no. I’d say that’s probably true.
But, Charles Kettering, holder of over three hundred patents, man responsible for the development of Freon and the first practical coloured paints for mass-produced cars (to paraphrase Wikipedia), they do quite frequently tax the items that help us to think more broadly, more deeply, and more intensely.
Look, for example, at the fact that paperback books cost a small fortune now, compared to their prices before the introduction of the GST—after which they rose by considerably more than ten percent, I might add.
And it’s nothing new: think of the Taxes on Knowledge (not the best link, but good on dates), which increased the prices of papers carrying political content well beyond the reach of any but the well-to-do, and which existed for over one hundred years.
(So when you see an inexpensive Victorian journal telling you that it’s “A Weekly Journal of Science, Arts, and Literature,” it’s not telling you what is contains, it’s telling you what it doesn’t contain: no religion or politics, and therefore not taxable.)
So they may not be able to levy a tax explicitly on thought, though it wouldn’t surprise me if they tried.
But they can certainly levy taxes on those objects and institutions that facilitate, enrich, or inspire thoughts.
So stop being fatuous, Gmail’s Quote of the Day.
Share your thoughts [3]
1
John wrote at Feb 18, 02:27 am
Thanks Catriona, that was really interesting.
I remember some time in the early 1980s the Fraser government tried to introduce some sort of tax (presumably sales tax) on books. The highly orchestrated campaign between publishers, booksellers, and their respective associations was so voluble that the government, sensibly, backed down.
There was no similar campaign—of which I’m aware, anyway—during the “debate” in the lead up to the introduction (imposition?) of the GST.
2
Catriona wrote at Feb 18, 02:51 am
I seem to vaguely remember some discussion at the time about books being exempt from GST? Of course, they weren’t, though they should be.
It makes cranky every time I think about how expensive books are now.
3
Tim wrote at Feb 18, 03:33 am
There was a campaign at the time, but it didn’t gain the coherence or media traction that the 80s effort did. The Democrats had promised to oppose applying the GST to books, but Meg Lees broke that promise. (Lees’ GST compromises weren’t enough for Natasha Stott Despoja and Andrew Bartlett, who crossed the floor when the GST legislation was voted on.)