What If We Had Taxed the Internet?

I still have a modem that looks like that, I just can't easily use it anymore. I also remember all the talk about taxes, and then how taxes in different states were applied to e-commerce and still are.

The issue with all discussions around the digital world is that the infrastructure doesn't have the same costs as say having a road. It is partly why ownership is being redefined so heavily when it comes to digital bits and whether you can own anything other than a license. Because the internet is not really physical beyond some cables and smart pieces of plastic, a tax applied to it is a little like trying to tax certain thoughts. Nothing makes solid sense in terms of how to impose a tax on anything since all of it is ultimately "wisps in the air" that ultimately exists chiefly in the mind.