What? I don’t think so! Here’s this piece of news from KOB.com, which I found thanks to a post on Engadget:
The Sierra Club is proposing a tax on video games and televisions with the proceeds going to programs that encourage families to get kids off of the couch and into the mountains.
Call it “No Child Left Inside.”Mike Casaus of the Sierra Club says families hiking a mountain trail together are becoming scarce as childhood diabetes and obesity is soaring, which is why the organization is proposing the one-percent tax.
“What we would do with this excise tax on tvs and video games and this type of equipment is to tax part of the problem to fund the solution,” he says.
The Sierra Club believes the bill would bring in about $4 million that could be used for programs like an outdoor classroom to tech children about the outdoors. Lawmakers killed the same idea last year.
Ok, I think this is way out of line. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for going outdoors and enjoying nature; but to levy a tax??? Who is to say that programs encouraging families and kids to go out and enjoy the wild outdoors would actually make them get off their butts? I say that this is a decision for each individual to make and levying a tax for these programs is not a guarantee. Maybe the Sierra Club should leave this well enough alone.