Seriously? Now The Left Wants to Tax Smartphones?

"Sin taxes" are and always have been a bad idea. It's not the government's place to try to manipulate our behavior, unless that behavior is causing harm to someone else. It's not the government's place to wag their fingers at us for eating bacon, or smoking the occasional cigar, or enjoying a snort of good whiskey now and then. But there are always those in and out of government, most commonly (but not exclusively) on the left, who want to use the power of taxation to regulate our behavior.

Which brings us to excessive cellular phone use. It can be puzzling, sure; my wife and I once, while traveling in the lower 48, went to a breakfast restaurant for a bite and were bemused to observe what appeared to be a father with three teenage daughters; all four came in, sat down, took out their phones, and scrolled through the entire meal. They only spoke to place their orders. Not a word was exchanged before, during, or after the meal, not from father to daughters, nor vice versa.

That's a bit odd. But should the government tax this kind of behavior? Bloomberg's Matthew Yglesias thinks it should. And that's a dumb idea.

Americans are reading less, sleeping less and partying less. We have fewer marriages, fewer children and fewer friends than we used to. Our children are doing worse in school.

Yes, all of those things are correct. He writes about the overuse of the internet and describes a few "nibbling at the edges" ideas. But it's Mr. Yglesias's proposed solution that triggers the "dumb" button:

But there is a need to go broader, especially in a world of growing fiscal deficits. Why not tax policy that discourages the all-you-can-stream ad-supported business model? How about a tax on digital advertising? Subscription-based models work for content that people are proud to consume, while ad-supported ones reward quantity over quality. I might also consider a progressive levy on broadband consumption, creating something like a return to the early days of cell phones, when people used them but had to be mindful of their minutes. That would allow people to use the internet for valuable activities while discouraging zombie-like scrolling.
In such a world, the tech industry would still be very powerful, tech companies would still be very large, and tech entrepreneurs would still be very rich. But the overall direction of entrepreneurial activity would shift away from low-value engagement and toward the many other things that can be done with digital technology. And Americans might spend less time watching streaming video and more time doing something more productive — which is to say, basically anything else.

No. Just no.

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First, it's not the role of government to protect us from ourselves in this manner. One could make a case, I suppose, for taxing tobacco, a substance with known risks to health. One could also make a case for taxing booze to reduce the odds of excessive consumption and the health issues that can come from that. I don't favor such taxes, but at least there's an argument for them. But why cell phone use? Are we to tax it because Matthew Yglesias finds it annoying? I find it annoying, too, but as Thomas Jefferson reportedly said, "If it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my arm, it's none of my concern."

Second, the purpose of taxation should be to raise revenues for essential government purposes, not to alter behavior.

The left always favors more, not less, control. Always. Yes, cellular phone use can be a bad thing when taken to extremes, as in the case described above. But we are still supposedly a free people, and that means we are free to decide to bury ourselves in the rabbit warren that is the online world. For the younger generations in particular, it is their parents, not the overbearing hand of government, that should be making that decision.

In the case I described above, when we talked about it later - my wife and I talk about everything, and after 34 years together, we still talk to each other - I opined, and she agreed, that the father here should have said, "This is a family event. No phones. Put them away." That, not a sin tax, is the solution.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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