Quote:
Originally Posted by Cimarron29414
Since you brought it up, suppose a particular hair relaxer was known to be carcinogenic and the government added an additional 10% tax on it. This tax would almost exclusively target black women. Do you think there would be outrage? ACLU, Jessie, and Al? Does it really matter who the demographic is?
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Well, the FDA or somebody would probably pull it off the market, is what would happen. Which might be what should happen with tanning salons. Hiking their tax is a "the genie is out of the bottle" solution--they can't just prohibit tanning (can you imagine the market in illicit tanning beds that would spring up??), but they can cause some trickle-down price increases to discourage people from tanning.
I'll say, when I read about the tax on tanning salons, it did strike me as somewhat... specific. I guess in principle it's no different from taxing cigarettes special at retail, and presumably somebody could produce a study indicating a high health care cost associated with the tanning industry....
I dunno. I'm not sure I'm for this particular tax. To make the argument that it's sexist/racist, though, is just dumb.
Now would be a good time to invest in bronzer manufacturers. Sales in Jersey alone are going to SKY ROCKET!