Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - PUB DISCUSSION Taxes to discourage certain behaviors

SirSeymour · 03-30-2009, 06:28 AM

While I am not thrilled with taxes in general, I consider the so called "sin" taxes as viable incentives to change behavior. They leave the idea of personal freedom in tact while generating revenue for society as a whole. If you do not wish to pay the tax, change your behavior. It is really that simple. I consider it an adaptation of some sort of flat tax where we pay for the luxuries we want.

Frankly, I think we should do this with more stuff in conjunction with making more things legal. I saw a commentary sometime in the last week or so by a Harvard economist where he noted that this country spends $44 Billion on drug enforcement annually (that is federal, state and local rolled into one number). He estimates that if we would just legalize drugs and tax them we could save the $44 Billion and generate an additional $33 Billion in revenue (not to mention the impact it would have violent and property crime that is connected to drugs in some way). Granted, these are just estimates on his part but for a country running the deficits the US is currently running, a policy change worth an estimated $77 Billion on the plus sides sounds like it should at least get talked about.

03-30-2009, 06:28 AM	#13 (permalink)
SirSeymour Ambling Toward the Light Location: The Early 16th Century	While I am not thrilled with taxes in general, I consider the so called "sin" taxes as viable incentives to change behavior. They leave the idea of personal freedom in tact while generating revenue for society as a whole. If you do not wish to pay the tax, change your behavior. It is really that simple. I consider it an adaptation of some sort of flat tax where we pay for the luxuries we want. Frankly, I think we should do this with more stuff in conjunction with making more things legal. I saw a commentary sometime in the last week or so by a Harvard economist where he noted that this country spends $44 Billion on drug enforcement annually (that is federal, state and local rolled into one number). He estimates that if we would just legalize drugs and tax them we could save the $44 Billion and generate an additional $33 Billion in revenue (not to mention the impact it would have violent and property crime that is connected to drugs in some way). Granted, these are just estimates on his part but for a country running the deficits the US is currently running, a policy change worth an estimated $77 Billion on the plus sides sounds like it should at least get talked about. __________________ SQL query SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue > 0 Zero rows returned....