Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, has again set a new standard for stupidity. It is taxing bloggers in the form of a license to blog. Brotherly love, my a..! 

What is the worst run business on the planet? Enron? Lehman Brothers? No, it is a city government. You get places like San Diego who entered into billion dollar pension agreements it could never hope to fund or Irvine which actually went bankrupt when the economy was GOOD!

In truth, nearly all cities are poorly run. Since they are so inefficient, they spend money like drunken fools. Conversely, they need more so they hunt for any tax they can come up with. Philadelphia is setting the latest standard for stupidity in this area. It is charging bloggers with a tax in the form of a license to operate. 

The tax is called the business-privilege license. It basically is a business license that costs $50 a year or $300 lifetime. The City has taken the position that anyone with a blog that derives any income at all from it must get a license. This includes the bloke with a blog who makes $2 a year on Adsense! 

The sheer stupidity of Philadelphia officials is not so much in the requirement of the license. No, think it through. How do they know who has a blog? They find out by analyzing data from the IRS regarding income claims. That means looking through individual tax returns. The Philly officials then track down the offending blogger and send out notices demanding the tax. How much time and money is expended doing this when you take into account employee salaries and the like?

A hell of a lot more than paid for a stinking $50 license!