My jaw just dropped when I saw this news yesterday:

“or the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated Ms Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay for a business privilege license — which cost $50 per year or $300 per lifetime.”

Most people blog for fun and most people (including me) doesn’t make $300 from their blog.  Yet the city of Philadelphia is asking people to pay a business privilege license?  How about cutting back on the benefits they pay out to union workers?  How about going after the big business that stores their profit offshore so the profit won’t be taxed?  Going after bloggers who are struggling to make an extra side income is simply inhumane.  I would shut down my blog immediately if I received one of those notice.  Even if you are making more than $300 a year from blogging, is paying $300 for “business privilege license” fair?