Those zany Europeans. Is there an economically self-mutilating policy they won’t consider?
French politician Alain Lamassoure last week proposed a tax on e-mail and instant messages in the EU. Unlike the e-mail hoax that periodically surfaces in the U.S. that the postal service is considering an e-mail tax, Lamassoure’s proposals were apparently no joke.
A member of Jacques Chirac’s UMP party, Lamassoure reportedly proposed adding a tax of around 1.5 cents on text or SMS messages and a 0.00001 cent levy on every e-mail sent.
“This is peanuts, but given the billions of transactions every day, this could still raise an immense income,” he reportedly said.
The ignorance of such a proposal is mind-boggling.
Did he intend to tax e-mail sent to servers in Europe? From servers in Europe? Through servers in Europe? All three?
Would Americans checking e-mail while on vacation in Europe be subject to the tax?
Lamassoure has since apparently realized the asininity of his idea. He issued a statement late last week saying the proposals were “not on the table… and, for my part, I have no intention of putting them on the table.”
Pop! Hear that? That’s the sound of Lamassoure’s head coming out of his… well, you know.
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