Sunday bits and pieces: Japanese iPod tax, shoe phone, and work tomorrow

I don't have anything big to write about today, so I think I will take a "bits and pieces" approach when this happens.

• Since 2005, the Japanese government has been pushing for an "iPod tax" - a tax of 1-3% on the price of media players. Recently, this tax proposal was permanently shut down. The idea behind a tax like this is that the government is trying to make up for lost tax revenue due to music and other media piracy. I understand a tax like this, but in terms of simple economics, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Either media players become more expensive for consumers and they buy less, or manufacturers are forced to lower the price a bit to compensate for the tax, resulting in reduced profits. Either way, this cuts into both sales tax and corporate income tax revenue that the government receives. Ultimately, I think this really just moves the money from one pocket to the other, doing nothing but angering consumers and/or media player manufacturers.
  

• As a kid, Get Smart was one of my all-time favorite TV shows (I'm young, so I was obviously watching reruns on Nick-at-Nite). The recent movie was funny, but I don't know if it really did the original show justice. The shoe phone seemed like a ridiculous gadget, but apparently it exists (if only in a Berlin museum).

• I'm starting work tomorrow downtown. Time to really see what the world of tax is all about.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.