bookbug blues
i could be more upset about the book tax. i am a bookbug, after all. i buy imported and local fiction and non-fiction regularly, mostly imported mostly english, and i read them all as a matter of pleasure, of study, sometimes of survival. do i really not mind paying more?
i mind, of course. times are hard, money is tight. maybe it’s just mercury being retrograde, i’ve been through this before, the post office has been taxing our mail-order books for some years now, and talaga i know i should could be angrier but i just can’t get beyond a hay-naku sabay buntong-hininga.
kumbaga sa “straw that broke the camel’s back” this is not it, this is far from it. because a tax on imported books simply is too lightweight and too burgis an issue to get me as mad as i already am about the scandalizingly high cost of basic goods and services e.g. food, shelter, clothing, utilities, medicines, and schooling. “non-educational” books simply don’t belong in the same category.
nonetheless i wish robin hemley and manolo and jessica and teddyboy and the blogosphere success in the campaign to jolt the government back to its senses and back to full compliance with the florence agreement. until then, books getting more expensive just means i’ll be buying less. maybe i’ll even stop going to bookstores, as a matter of protest, as 1read2 suggests:
… the government as represented by the Department of Finance and Customs Bureau has made its stand on the Book Tax and Duty. “Sue us” seems to be the battle cry: A very arrogant one at that.
…Hopefully, someone does sue them but in the meantime what to do?
Given that it seems that the bookstores and booksellers are somewhat hesitant to challenge this ruling. Perhaps it would be time to do something against this taxation.
Do not buy books that have duties imposed. Do not buy it. Book readers and book collectors are the customers of this industry. And they make it prosper and if the industry cannot defend itself from unjust and illegal taxes it might be the time to not buy.
Books can be downloaded from the Net . Read and even share the ebook with a friend or fellow book reader.
…Refuse to pay the taxman his unjust taxes
Books can be gained in several ways and not all of them involves buying. No I am not referring to stealing. Borrow from the library or share a book with a friend.
Establish book clubs with libraries…
meanwhile as le flaneur reminds in his comment to mlq3 there’s the 2010 elections coming. how about if we not vote for candidates who support the book tax. or, to be positive. how about if we campaign and vote for candidates who would rescind the book tax (other things being equal ;)
also meanwhile, there’s always booksale. i don’t mind secondhand books. i’m also willing to trade, but first i have to put together a list of books that i can bear to part with, fiction and non-, all of them educational. promise.