In some cases, both rely on the honor system to collect their revenue. During tax season, New York State asks its citizens to voluntarily pay sales tax on any untaxed internet purchases they have made over last year. The plea has been pretty effective — New Yorkers handed over $45 million in internet sales tax last year alone. Still, that’s . . .
You may remember Paul Feldman as the Bagel Man we wrote about in Freakonomics. You may also remember that he was an economist before he got into bagels, with an interest in agricultural, medical, and military issues. He recently wrote to us about an environmental issue he’s been looking into: the abundance of underground coal fires in abandoned mines and . . .
Devin Brewer, a folkish singer-songwriter from Seattle, has co-founded a music-downloading site called SongSlide that lets musicians post their music for sale and lets buyers pay what they wish for the songs, with a $.59 minimum. The higher the amount, the larger a percentage goes to the musician. Brewer wrote to say that his site was inspired in part by . . .