A Tax on Celebrities

In the mid-1930s when California adopted the personal income tax - the celebrities ran a campaign against the new personal income tax. When I was doing my dissertation I found a political brochure by something called the "Committee to Save California Jobs" - in it the claim was made that the then new income tax would lose key jobs in the state - like those for "cooks, butlers and chauffers." Were the tax not eliminated - the celebrities would leave California for less taxed locations. That convinced me that celebrity political types were mostly daffy. Not all, but most. The initiative actually lost in 1936 (with arguments like that it is indeed a surprise).

Think of the salutory effects if celebrities were made to live by their own expressed principles. Then in the Weekly Standard, about six months ago, P.J. O'Rourke made for a new tax policy --

"The greatest pleasure of running a country (although no politician will admit it) is getting to tax people. We Republicans decry exactions and imposts and espouse minimal outlay by the sovereign power. But we control all three branches of government. This won't last forever. Let's have some fun while we can. Moreover, the federal deficit is -- contrary to all Republican principles --huge. Even the most spending-averse among us wouldn't mind additional revenue.

America's media and entertainment industry has a gross (as it were) revenue of $316.8 billion a year. If we subtract the income derived from worthy journalism and the publishing of serious books, that leaves $316.8 billion. Surely this money can be put to a more socially useful purpose than reportage on the going forth and multiplying of Britney Spears....

I suggest, therefore, a Celebrity Tax with a low-end base rate of, mmm, 100 percent. Furthermore, let's make the tax progressive to get some Democrats on board. (Probably not including Hillary, Ted, and Barney Frank. They'll be working nights and weekends to pay up.) Given the modest talent of current celebrities and the immodest example they set for impressionable youth, we'll call it a "Value Subtracted Tax," or, better, a "Family Value Subtracted Tax." And it will be calculated on the celebrity's net worth."

What a concept!