New Mexico considering 1% tax on video games

7 Comments

Comment by Brian on January 23, 2008 at 4:31pm

Not a fan of this, and not just because I buy more games than I do anything else -- but I can't help but wonder, why are games specifically being hit here? Why not spread the load a bit, and instead of 1% on games and televisions, make it 0.5% on games, televisions, but also DVDs, CDs, and other consumer electronics like home theater equipment and such?

I'm glad it's in a more positive light -- they're not saying "Games are evil" so much as "Games are sedentary" which is harder to argue against -- but instead of focusing on one particular product, it seems like it'd be good to spread it out a bit. As someone who doesn't buy any DVDs or CDs these days, it feels like I'm being penalized for my particular choice in entertainment. If it were a bit more spread out, I'd feel better about it.

Comment by Nora on January 23, 2008 at 4:56pm

I feel with that-- no one really seems to have a problem with ragging on video games because they're apparently what's destroying our culture. If we're gonna be taxing everything that's sedentary, don't forget to tax books as well.

One of the other problems I can see with this is a lot less money going into the local game franchises and a lot more going to stuff like Amazon where we don't have to pay the tax, especially when we're buying stuff like consoles, though the $4 we'd save getting a $400 console wouldn't be quite enough to pay for shipping.

Also, there's a lot more non-sedentary games coming out lately. Maybe we should have to sign a contract saying we promise to jump around when we're playing Wario and not sit on the couch and barely move the Wiimote around.

I've been feeling lately like video games are being attacked simply because they're easy to attack. I don't see anything particularly more valuable about playing, say, chess with your family as opposed to Mario Kart, or how watching a movie is better than playing Final Fantasy. At least with video games you're engaging and making decisions, which IMO makes them better than, say, movies.

Comment by Internet Jedi on January 23, 2008 at 5:06pm

Tax on video games bring teh suk!

Comment by John on January 23, 2008 at 8:23pm

Screw this. Normally I don't really have anything against taxes, but this is just stupid. I agree with Brian, if they're going to tax video games they might as well tax all CDs, DVDs, etc.

Better yet, why not tax TVs? None of this stuff works without a TV, why not just tax the source of all the woes of the State Parks (yeah right...)?

Comment by Nora on January 23, 2008 at 8:59pm

They are, according to some of these sources. TVs + Video games.

Comment by Nora on January 23, 2008 at 9:31pm

Maybe they should tax using the DCF for those of us who sit here and keep refreshing over and over again.

Comment by Dan Ehrig on January 24, 2008 at 8:34am

If the idea is to punish industries that encourage sedentary activities perhaps we should start taxing (rather than massively subsidizing) the film industry.

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