Start by taxing the ever-loving crap out of Hollywood. I’ve suggested this before, and the esteemed Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds, was on the same wavelength last August when he suggested bringing back the 20 percent excise tax on motion picture gross revenue from the 1950s.“The movie excise tax was imposed in response to the high deficits after World War Two,” Reynolds recalled. ”Deficits are high again, and there’s already historical precedent. Of course, to keep up with technology, the tax should now apply to DVDs, downloadable movies, pay-per-view and the like. But in these financially perilous times, why should movie stars and studio moguls, with their yachts, swimming pools and private jets, not at least shoulder the burden they carried back in Harry Truman’s day – when, to be honest, movies were better anyway.”
As Reynolds noted, one side effect of such proposals is that it causes far-Left Hollywood types to suddenly begin babbling about the depressing effects of high tax rates upon economic growth, as though they had been suddenly possessed by the ghost of Milton Friedman. That’s fun even if the tax proposals end up getting defeated. Especially now that we have YouTube to disseminate and immortalize their panicked bursts of “trickle-down economic” wisdom.
Also, no matter how dire the economy is, people for some reason STILL get themselves and their kids into a movie theater, REGULARLY!
I am always suprised at people who routinely go to the movies and wouldn’t miss a new movie for anything... no matter how much it costs.
Movies are NOT necessities of life like home heating, food, gas for the car, medicine, etc. ... yet no matter what the cost, people STILL go to the movies!
I work with people struggling with ever greater expenses, taking care of kids, static income levels, etc... and these people whine all the time about the increased cost of living. BUT, they still take their kids to Disneyland, go to the movies, go out to eat.... they have NOT modified their life style one iota!
I suspect much of this is done on the credit cards. What a hole they dig for themselves. They think they are entitled to live like this so they have NO business complaining.
When I was young, if I or my brother whined about going to Disneyland, taking a vacation, going to the movies... etc., we’d find ourselves handed a rake or a bucket ... “Your father isn’t working for vacations and movies! If you have time like that to spare, make yourself useful. !”