Burning Man can be a challenging and uncomfortable place to visit. It turns out that the best way to attend is to work for or be friends with the federal government. For 2015 the Bureau of Land Management is requiring the Burning Man organization to building a $1 million VIP compound (USA Today) with “butter and margarine” (what about the government’s war on transfats?), 24-hour ice cream access, “a variety of dessert served with each dinner,” Chobani yogurt, etc. (Reno Gazette-Journal). They need washers and dryers because, apparently, packing a whole week of clothing is not something that VIPs can do (nor can they take their taxpayer-funded vehicles to the laundromat in nearby Gerlach, Nevada).
The state government doesn’t want to be left out. They’ve passed a law that takes effect in October 2015 to collect a 9 percent tax on festivals such as Burning Man (Forbes). The state, which doesn’t impose an income tax on its own individual or corporate citizens, thus manages to shift even more of the tax burden to visitors. (The state’s tax burden is already pretty low, 8% of income compared to a national average of 9.8% according to the Tax Foundation.) They’ll soon have a $5 billion Tesla battery factory in the Reno area. Perhaps this will become a tourist destination in its own right, leading to more tax revenues from hotel and restaurant purchases by visitors (and a state tax on factory tours?).
(Another peculiarity of Nevada is that they cap child support at a tax-free $13,000 per year (Real World Divorce). That’s double the limit in Germany, and still represents a profit over what typical American couples spend on their children, but Nevada is right next to California, which offers unlimited child support profits by formula to custody victors. If a VIP from Washington, D.C. (unlimited child support by judicial discretion) comes to the proposed “camp uber douche” and invites a young lady from California to come sample the salad bar, four types of milk, seven kinds of juice, etc., there is potential for litigation in three states regarding venue, with millions of tax-free dollars riding on the outcome.)
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If you are a member of the public attending Burning Man, you know what you are signing up for, so when you get there and there are no modern amenities, it’s your problem. But security personnel or whomever gets sent by BLM didn’t sign up for hardship duty and can’t be expected to totally rough it just because the attendees do. That being said, the BLM demands were maybe a bit over the top. Maybe they figured they’d ask for the moon and the stars and settle for just the moon. It seems to have backfired.
The BLM does keep jacking up the fees, far beyond the rate of inflation, but Burning Man gave them the opening by letting that woman get run over by a fur covered bus last year.
That’s true, Izzie. I am sure that, without the same selection of beverages that you might find at a Ritz Carlton buffet, BLM would have a tough time finding people willing to spend a week collecting overtime wages in an air-conditioned SUV looking out through the window at topless women.
I think it’s time for the Burning Man collective to call it quits.
Experiment completed. Countercultural festival fully transitioned into government toadie junket fodder. 30 years. Done.