oh trust me, our government doesnt know any limit what comes about filling their own fuckin pocket
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^ This is what's all about. Massive administration and gov spending.
Also, taxing the Internet is DANGEROUS idea, and it just can go WORSE from there - for everyone - administration in some other country will see the way they can fill in the gaps they're creating. As the OP said, what's next, taxing air?! And they will, once they run out of money. And they will run out of money.
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The idea itself is the worst. The internet is a free platform to do what you want. You can say what you want, post or watch what you want (even against governments) so by taxing it, in a way they are trying to control the flow of information by making harder to get internet. Just like the censorship in China
Even though ISP have great profit, they just will start to abandon limitless subscription for cable net. We'll have subscriptions like the ones back in 2004 when you could download 5-10gb every month!
Just think about it! I buy an AAA title on steam like a Call of Duty and it requires 55 GB Free space on my hard drive. I can't even download ONE game per month this way.
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Regardless, it was just a question of time until someone started taxing the internet. Soon enough other countries will follow suit.
There's a tax on food too. So are all the governments trying to starve people? No, they're just cashing in on things people will buy/use anyway. It's capitalism, deal with it.
(No offense intended, I know I come off as rather rude most of the time)
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"There's a tax on food too. So are all the governments trying to starve people? No, they're just cashing in on things people will buy/use anyway. "
Almost no country taxes "food". Some countries have a "fat tax", which is applied only to food products labeled as "junk food".
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Because Internet is not something your government provides in return for paying taxes, it's something private companies and international networks create by being connected with each other, and their users, and everything else.
Government can ask for taxes and then use the money to build roads and hospitals and waterworks, but they will not use the money to build internet - it already exists and will be improved by private funds and EU initiatives (plan 2020) to attract more private investments into communications Europe-wide.
People forget that the countries are organisations that are meant to provide rights and protection to their citizens. Human rights, special rights (let's say right to raise a flag in front of your house), or protect from vandals, looters, murderers, even foreign enemies. To provide equal rights for companies to build parks and roads and cinemas. To give security. Government is not there to loot their own citizens every time it want's more money for who knows what.
They can say it's to pay police to stop someone from looting optic cables and breaking into service providers... but people of Hungary already pay taxes for that, so the police would protect them, and their streets, and their optic cables and copper wires, because that is not different from protecting a street window or any person.
It's simple. Government, which forgets what their job is, and start thinking they are above the citizens, is looking for ways to raise more funds for their own pockets. And someone like you Ultor said - Oh, no one is taxing the Internet, why should that be free...
That's how it starts.
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I'm too tired and uninterested in the general subject of politics+taxes to reply in detail, but here goes.
I never said I condone an internet tax, I simply am amused by the outcries of rage by quite some people in this thread.
And since when does the government, any government, spend money from taxes on whatever the taxes were on?
Modern life is about making money. As much as possible. Now, taxing stuff is a reliable source of income for the government. Why wouldn't they tax something as commonly used as the internet?
And who's looting anyone? As you said, the government's purpose is to protect their citizens rights, lives, and possessions, as well as to provide healthcare, education, blah blah. Now, that costs money. Lots of it. Where to get that money? As said above, taxes are a reliable source of income.
Obviously, Orbán doesn't give a single shit about improving life quality (and if he does, he really sucks at it), and most of the money will disappear into obscurity, until it reappears in the elite's pockets. Regardless, taxing the internet per se is not something I deem worthy of raging against and rioting, and exclaiming "muh interwebz" all over the place.
And yes, I think that taxing the internet isn't as scandalous/authoritarian/anti-democratic/whatever as pretty much everyone here makes it sound.
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Maybe you think it isn't, but obviously you don't have much clue what you're talking about. :) As you said, you're uninterested "in the general subject of politics+taxes", so it's not big of a surprise that's your stance on the matter.
Also, you said "taxes are a reliable source of income", but I must ask for who?! The people, or the government who should be working in the peoples' interest??
If they lack money, they should reconsider changing the economy, military alliance, politics,... but most of all they should change themselves, reorganize, cut the spending, layoff all unnecessary, useless relatives and lazy people in administration.
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" Unlike most other governments, the Nazis did not increase direct and personal taxes by any significant amount in order to fund the war. The top personal income tax rate in 1941 was 13.7% in Germany as opposed to 23.7% in Great Britain
"
-- from wikipedia.en Economy of Nazi Germany
so don't blame me for this text. also I do not have time to check it out for real. I just checked it (by wiki) and I found it interesting to add here. ;) ;)
btw - I read that will be the monthly upper limit for this tax (3$ for individual customers and 20$ for companies).
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Pretty bad since the minimal wage is already low and they are trying to tax the phone calls too. It's 10% of the money we already pay for the internet :/
Csodálom, hogy az unió engedi ezt magyarországnak. Hiába van egy maximuma, mert azt úgy határozták meg, hogy az egy hónap alatt még könnyen elérhető adatmennyiség. Átlag felhasználó el fogja érni azt a max összeget hamar, youtube, facebook és a hasonlók révén. Államnak egy jó kis többletpénz lesz, amivel gazdálkodhat, csak a vége az lesz, hogy elszórja a pénzt ugyanúgy.
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Én megnéztem a játékaim méretét steamen. 170k volt egy hete, most már 180k forintra jönne ki, ha kifizetném 150huf/gb ár mellett. Aztán ott van az, amikor korrupt a fájl és újra le kell tölteni a játékot. Esetleg gond van a géppel és újra kell telepíteni, aztán meg az adatokat beszerezni.
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Burn your country to the ground and create a new one, with free internet.
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So if I wanted to download Max Payne 3 from Steam which is 50GB I'd have to pay 0.6$x50? That's a fucking thievery. People who want to introduce it are fucking thieves who abuse power. Same goes for watching movies on Netflix, HBO GO etc.? It's unthinkable. I can't believe it will pass.
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Yeah, that was the original plan. Now they want to maximize the tax to avoid killing the private sector.
Netflix? We don't have that here :P Last news I heard about Netflix that they are planning to come here in 2015. I'm not sure that plan is still valid.
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I'm hungarian aswell, but am living in the UK (will visit home for about two months in two weeks), and I just can't find words. I'm glad, I'm not staying home for too long (which is pretty sad tough, because everyone should have some love for their home country).
But really. Think about, if we want to download a game, or just play online. This is a plan, that born to fail. Even if they accept it, I don't think, they can keep it, because people are already holding demonstrations, and if their word are not heard, they (we) will have the power to make the change and cancel this pointless tax.
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Basically the Establishment is trying to decrease the use of internet for political reason. This is the most economical damage you can do in a European country for years to come and a really despicable thing you can do in a country of free speech, if there is any there.
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I think i'm either not seeing the problem or I must have misunderstood the OP, if there's a max of $2.80 a month, what's the big deal?
I assumed it was without a max and in that case it'd be a horrible idea limiting the amount of data you can download but if there's such a low max amount then can't you just see it as a small price increase for your internet bundle?
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My current internet bundle costs ~10$. Add the planned tax + 27% VAT -> that's almost 40% rise.
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Now that's an answer that clarifies it a bit for me, i'm currently paying 30 euros ($40) for a basic connection in the netherlands while our country technically should have low prices for internet (due to how easy it is to lay the lines here) so I kinda assumed you'd be paying something like that as well.
Any chance you've got an idea how much the average disposable income is?
I'm getting the feeling that Hungary is a bit cheaper when it comes to the cost of living so it sounds higher for you then it does for me, I mean if i want a cup of coffee over here it'd easily cost me 3-4 USD and that's from a gasstation, not some cafe, hence why the increase doesn't seem all to high for me.
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Minimal Wage: 418$ (gross) /after taxes: 273$ (net)/
Avarege Income: 618$/month (our leader politicians got at least 6000$/month, but probably more)
50/30 internet: 12$ (At capital)
A coffee from a machine or gasstation: 0,5-0,7$
1 cheesburger from MC: 1,25$
1 kg meat: 2,5-5,5$ (chicken is cheaper)
Living here alone (without parents, own house, gf/wife), if you only have minimal wage is almost impossible.
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Thanks for taking the time to give me such an accurate response, seems that while the cost of ordering out is considerably lower (cheeseburger for instance is 1.75 Euro here) the basics are indeed just as high as they are here, and even here it's quite difficult to get around with just minimum wage when you're living by yourself with noone to share the bills with.
I guess I'm just way too used to overpaying for small things when going out like grabbing a snack, a pack of smokes (6.50 euro currently) or just a drink at a random cafe hence why it doesn't seem too high for me, you guys just get way more bang for you buck.
Actually now that I think of it, it slipped my mind but I was in Hungary this summer and I did in fact lol quite a few times at prices at gas stations/rest stops, in The Netherlands you pay 4-5 euros for a factory made sandwich (2 slices of bread) as opposed to a full meal for 2 people for about the same price over there.
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Hi guys!
I am from Hungary and as I do believe you heard already, our government accepted the law and from January, 2015, the internet usage will have tax. 0.6$/GB which is pretty high. Even with the high cap of monthly 2.8$
It's just so sad :( Not because the money rather due to the fact that taxing the internet is basically a rotten idea. It is the best platform for sharing ideas and information, communicating and doing business. This kind of tax is like taxing oxygen usage from breathing :/ What do you think guys?
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