The government is now taxing Christmas in order to pay for its wrecking of the economy.
In the pre-dawn darkness of a chilly LA morning, my day started off with a chuckle. A friend in the reforestation business sent me an email detailing the US Department of Agriculture’s new ‘Christmas Tree’ tax that was approved yesterday. I thought it was a joke. It wasn’t.
One can only laugh at the absurdity of the government getting involved in such a matter. But it’s happening more and more.
You see, the United States is on a one-way collision course with its financial judgment day; the country long ago passed the historical point of no return– the point at which it has to start borrowing money simply to pay interest on the money it has already borrowed.
Throughout history, countries that passed this point of no return soon defaulted on their debts, entered into extended periods of severe inflation, or both. This is nothing new– the idea of a government going bankrupt is practically as old as the concept of government itself.
The free lunch is over.
Cross Posted at Power and Control
Comments
5 responses to “Taxing Christmas”
This program was developed under the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996. There are at least 18 other similar programs already in effect for various agricultural commodities. Although smaller in scope, the Christmas tree program will be
similar to recognizable programs for milk, cotton and beef that have brought consumers commodity-oriented messages such as “Got Milk?” and “Beef, It’s what’s for dinner.”
http://www.christmastree.org/11_PR7.pdf
Non profit associations managed by Professional Association Management Services with accreditation through programs based on the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) “Standard of Good Practices for the Association Management Industry.”
http://www.amrms.com/content/association-management-services
So many nice career jobs for so many well connected people.
“taxing Christmas in order to pay for its wrecking of the economy.”
Sorry to say but you are wrong on two counts (which means that things are much better than you think!) First by the time you posted this Obama had put the program “on hold” (although of course it could come back). Secondly, it’s not to pay for “wrecking the economy,” it’s to pay for a new federal board to market Christmas trees because the Christmas tree industry lobbied for it. Taxing their own product to pay the government to market it because they are losing market share is corrupt and stupid, but it’s (thankfully) not just supposed to be a random revenue generator for the government, which is still going to be just as broke with or without the Christmas tree tax!
joshua,
So why not form a Christmas Tree Industry Association and do it privately?
Ever hear of the Electronics Industry Association? It benefits the whole electronics industry. And yet not every electronics firm is required by law to belong.
What you are praising is just another form of crony capitalism.
Just because some tree farmers lobbied for it doesn’t make it right.
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In fact it is worse than I thought. Because you (who should obviously know better) see nothing wrong with doing such an association at the point of a government gun.
Simon, I said it was “corrupt and stupid,” and I completely agree with everything you said in your comment. I did not intend to praise this rather obvious example of crony capitalism; I was just pointing out that the program had been put on hold and that the revenue from the tax was meant to be used solely for marketing Christmas trees and not to add revenue to the general government budget to pay for the wrecking of the economy. Still a bad idea, but a different kind of bad.
joshua,
My apologies. I should read more carefully before firing.