Friday, January 8, 2010

op eds Anthony Juliana

1:
Argument: Provo's ridiculous snowball law should be abolished.
Claims: Snowballs are not weapons.
Reasons: The only danger of snowballs are only when throwing them at traffic, which is illegal in most places anyways. Snowball fights are a fun social opportunity. It is also perhaps the most violated law on campus. Provo cops should be occupied with more important issues.
Assumptions: People are smart enough to know to not throw snowballs at cars.

2:
Argument: BYU should have a school funded ski team.
Claim: Being in Utah, it is a huge shame that the ski team is not funded by the school.
Reasons: Athletes of other sports mostly get to play for free, if not get paid to play. Students wanting to ski race must pay 375 dollars for a seasons pass + an additional 200-300 in league fees. Utah has the "greatest snow on earth."
Assumptions: There are enough skiers to make the team worthwhile.

3.
Argument: Residents of Oregon, Alaska, Delaware, Montana and New Hampshire should not have to pay Utah sales tax.
Claim: Forcing these citizens to pay sales tax is unfair.
Reasons: As out of states residents, we don't really benefit from the extra revenue the government gets from sales taxes. Example: A membership for the Provo library is NOT free for non-permanent residents. Plus families of students from these 5 states also pay higher property taxes so it is not all that fair for families to essentially pay taxes twice.
Assumptions: Individual shop owners will actually honor this new policy.

6 comments:

  1. I think your last argument is interesting. But why not from the other 49 states, and only those? I know those states do not have sales tax, but with your argument of not benefiting from the extra revenue, that would apply to every out of state, or international student.

    I don't relly understand your assumption, because businesses have to follow tax laws, and if the law were that out of staters didn't have to pay sales tax, then they wouldn't. The tax goes to the government, not the business; so the business owners don't care. I feel a better assumption would be something saying: people only want to pay taxes that they benefit from.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. I'm just adding to the comment I deleted to clarify. What if the snowballs are more like ice than snow? I mean the definition of a snowball is pretty vague and where does one draw the line at what is throwable and not in one of these snowball fights?

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  4. As far as I know your third argument does not exist. I come from Alaska and as such I have visited the lower 48 on numerous locations. Whenever I bought or purchased anything I usually just told the cashier that I did not have to pay sales tax, because I was an Alaskan. This would however not always work, but most of the time it did. On all occasions to which it did not work, our family just simply kept the receipts til the return trip. Then while in the airport, there was a spot designated to show all the sales taxes spent and then to get a refund for those taxes. At least, that was my experience with taxation.

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  5. I can totally relate to BYU not funding the Ski Team. In my High School, I was on the Surfing Team, and we were the only team at school that was not funded by the school. We had to raise money through fundraisers just to pay the contest fees, but then we had to pay for all the insurance costs ourselves. Its a shame that schools do not recognize these activities, especially since BYU is located minutes away from one of the biggest ski destinations in the world

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  6. I find your third idea interesting. I have had problems with the Utah tax myself, as it is so much higher, and is applied to many more items than in pennsylvania where I'm from. But I think just selecting five states that don't have to pay utah tax is unfair. Perhaps you could explore only paying tax in your home state, or having your home state tax apply to any state you shop in. Just some ideas.

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