Oklahoma Ponders Violent Videogame Tax

[aPod]

Well, there's one thing the Government is good at and that's coming up with new and interesting ways to tax you.

I can't wait till we have a public farting tax. Public farting is a menace to society. It may cause serious physical harm to senior citizens who already have difficulty breathing and we can not be certain but we believe it causes irreparable damage to infants.

 

[zombiesinc]

Can we start taxing irresponsible and lazy parents for every breath then? Can we? No? That's just silly? ... yeah.

Bullying and the like has little to do with video games (and entertainment/media in general) and much, much more with parenting... but yeah, let's start taxing something that's already struggling so much with piracy. It'll only discourage those pirates, y'know?

 

[PBMcNair]

So where does this guy come down on that wonderful simulator of genocidal civil war, Worms ?

 

[Radoh]

So I don't really care about any of this because a proposed amendment means nothing, and will almost assuredly be shot down because TAXES ARE EVIL.
I came here for one very specific purpose. His name is Fourkiller.
His last name, the identity he uses and is addressed by, is Fourkiller.
I've brought you your coffee, Mr. Fourkiller.
Wow I love that name so much. He just has to be a James Bond villain.

 

[Astoria]

Ahh of course, the good old 'we'll just tax it!' answer. It's seriously Australia's Prime Minister's answer to everything. I just hope she doesn't hear about this. They don't seem to understand that when the cost of living goes up, parents need to work more, meaning they'll be more tired when they get home and be much more likely to just buy fast food for tea. Parents also don't like their children going out alone so they make them stay home when they aren't around, meaning kids don't have anything to do BUT playing video games all day. THIS is why kids are fatter nowadays. Because of your taxes! I'm not even going to comment on the 'video games make kids angry' thing because I'm sick of this conclusion.

 

[JaceArveduin]

Oh, look, one of my representatives being an idiot, how surprising...

Don't worry guys, OK is just really good at getting idiots elected, not a Grade A pool to pull from to be honest.

 

[Zen Toombs]

I am who would this is what could I don't even....

God bless them.

...

*sigh*

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Teen games? In all honesty, when was the last time a T rated game really screamed "Way too much violence"

Am I gonna beat up the nerds in my school because James Bond told me to?

No way. I'm beating up the nerds because Fred from Revenge of the Nerds hates nerds.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

An Oklahoma State Representative wants to impose a tax on violent videogames to help fight childhood obesity and bullying.

I suppose I see where the bully thing can come into question but obesity?

How... does that even work?

This government logic is making my brain hurt. I think I need to go lay down for a while.

 

[yundex]

I'm not surprised that this is a democrat, haha.

 

[DJDarque]

Want to fight obesity? Improve the standard of food given to children in schools, the way super high callorie foods are advertised at children and invest in education about diet, health and exercise for perents and children. Want to fight bullying? Invest in counciling programs for children and better training for teachers to deal with the problem.

Ideally this would be a fantastic plan, but sadly, currently, schools have too little funding as is. I'm definitely not agreeing with this guy, but the money needs to be generated somewhere, and a general tax increase will almost always be shot down even if it is to benefit schools (at least in my neck of the woods).

 

[Dagda Mor]

I refuse to believe that a tax like this was ever even seriously considered.Good day,sirs.

 

[yundex]

Want to fight obesity? Improve the standard of food given to children in schools, the way super high callorie foods are advertised at children and invest in education about diet, health and exercise for perents and children. Want to fight bullying? Invest in counciling programs for children and better training for teachers to deal with the problem.

Ideally this would be a fantastic plan, but sadly, currently, schools have too little funding as is. I'm definitely not agreeing with this guy, but the money needs to be generated somewhere, and a general tax increase will almost always be shot down even if it is to benefit schools (at least in my neck of the woods).

Parents can always pack a better and cheaper lunch, unless they're on the free/reduced program or if your school goes batshit psychotic and bans home lunches. (and yes that's actually happened)

 

[Orks da best]

Yeah because obviously kids can't get fat when playing Little Big Planet because there's no violence in it!

You know this is why I get so pissed off about the freakishly overblown taxes for smokers because even if I'm NOT a smoker, the fact that the government is allowed to do that to smokers is precendent for them to add outrageous taxes to anything the government thinks is bad. We demonize smokers so it's okay to tax the fuck out of them. They've got the demonization of video gamers down and so I wouldn't be surprised if that it was just a matter of time before that 60 dollar video game is now 100 dollars because you have to pay the government to have it!

your avatar just seems to fit your post very well.

Also anyone else feeling like burning these wach jobs they coming from anywhere nowadays.

 

[OManoghue]

That's the face of some God fearing pussy who was bullied in school. Now he has power and wants to fuck with regular people.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

What an idiot. Way to jump on a bandwagon thats so fucking old its falling apart.

In fact explain to me exactly what makes kids snap when they play violent video games. I can understand AO games - there's what, like six of them? And explain to me the difference between violent video games, violent movies, violent books (if you read books you'll understand how fucking preposterous that is) and how about violent imagination?

You want to tax some more of my free rights?

You do know that Americans live to be around 80, right? So children, 6 - 17 make up about an 1/8 or that. If we're being totally realistic lets say that all gamers fall between the ages of 8 and 38: thats still 1/4.

Why don't you just tax stupid parents? Wanker

 

[azurine]

Any video games rated "T" or higher, are not supposed to be played by children. Parents need to take responsibility and watch their own children, we don't need more laws and taxes to have the government do that for them.

Secondly, no one, anywhere, at any point, is recruited and sent by video games to hurt others. People are just crazy to begin with.

Thirdly, I've been bullied. I know what it's like. I have a feeling that, 1: he wouldn't be helped by any "anti-bullying" facility, and 2: he didn't played games very often, or experiences any form of art or media to begin with, ever.

This bill offends me, as both a gamer, and someone who's been picked on in life.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

My brains hurts trying to figure out how this guy thinks this will solve anything and why thinks games with the "T" rating cause violence.

 

[spartan231490]

wow. Idiotic. Games do not cause obesity and bullying. Human nature and bad parenting cause both.

 

[poiuppx]

So, wait... is this guy saying that the reason I was bullied in elementary school was the games of that era? Huh. Who knew mid-era NES games were such a bad influence?

That said, this guy is a bloody idiot. Is there just something in the political water lately? Please, someone, invent something new the politicos can get insane over so that our hobby/industry can get a little breathing room.