Can you imagine giving your hard earned tax dollars to an obsolete industry? How about borrowing against the tax dollars of your yet-to-be-working child for a technology that has faded or is fading fast? Sound impossible?
That is exactly what Washington DC has started doing.
Governor Chris Gregoire has approved tax breaks for ailing newspapers around the country. The new law gives newspapers a 40% cut in their state taxes.
There is a reason newspapers are going out of business — and it’s not the recession. It’s the reason you’re reading this article now; the Internet. There was a reason typewriters stopped being sold many years ago; the computer. Where was the bail-out money then? Smith Corona may want apply for retroactive assistance.
There should be a very simple rule put into place. If you cannot pay your taxes, or you cannot sustain a profit, you must go out of business. It doesn’t matter if you’re a typewriter company, a newspaper or an auto maker. When someone in Government learns that, we’ll start sailing back to prosperity. Until then, we’re on a leaking ship, throwing money overboard instead of plugging the holes.
