"Sin" Taxes...Coming to a product near you!

[Athena]

Sin taxes, the government's favorite way to discourage unhealthy behavior, has commonly been applied to unpopular items. These typically include evils such as cigarettes, alcohol and gambling. The intent is clear - dissuade people from unhealthy behavior while raising money for more popular programs. Because, you know...Those of us who do indulge clearly need to be saved from our own poor judgment by enlightened legislation, or, at the very least, deserve to incur a disproportionate tax burden as the result of our dissent.

Normally, when I engage in sin tax discussions, the general consensus is, "Why should I care? I don't ..." My very simple response is as follows: You should care. The government sees a wildly successful fundraising program in sin taxes, and they WILL look to expand. Why wait until it affects you personally?

So, with every new sin tax initiative brought to my attention, I bring it to my fellow citizens' attention. "Do you care [i]now?" "How 'bout now?" Well, here's another one, and it's a doozy...

The sin tax Axis of Evil is now expanding to include - No, not Belarus - TV and videogames. Now do you care?

New Mexico has developed a movement cleverly titled, "No Child Left Inside", which aims to help students (you guessed it) get outside more during school hours. The tax, which would raise $4 million a year, would pay to bus students to parks and train teachers to encorporate outdoor learning.

Is it logical? Sure. Well-intentioned? Check. But the question is not, "Does this make sense to you?", rather, do you really want the government essentially forcing you into healthy living by simply increasing the cost of anything it deems unhealthy? This IS a slippery slope, folks. It started with lo-hanging fruit like smoking and drinking, but the combination of little resistance and LOTS of revenue is encouraging them to branch out. Today, it's cigarettes and alcohol. Tomorrow, it's TVs and videogames...But what about next week? Will they excessively tax fast food or ice cream shops? You betcha.

Soon, we'll all be healthy, because it'll be too damn expensive to do anything fun or fattening.

[The Diabolical Mr. Lieman]

Soon, we'll all be healthy, because it'll be too damn expensive to do anything fun or fattening.


Lofl, great line.

Hrm. So far, I'm ok with them, but I don't smoke, and I think it's ok to try to encourage America to get a little more healthy....but I see your point. Taxing personal freedoms just strikes wrong, yes....

[Athena]

And that's just it, Lieman - Rare is the travesty that occurs in one fell swoop.

Now, I don't mean to suggest that this is entirely calculated. We know me and I'm no conspiracy theorist. But, we are undeniably moving toward a homogenized society, and we're not doing so of our own accord. The government is making decisions for us that alter our lifestyles and our doctors are making decisions for us that alter our personalities. Yeah, for the time being, it's under the guise of healthy and improved living. My question is, how far will it go?

On an off note - What does it say about our society when the government feels compelled to do our parenting for us?

[gprime]

I suppose since power corrupts, it is only natural for the government to seek increasing levels of power. And what is a better way to ensure greater power than by growing size and expanding function? It seems much more justifiable to the average apolitical joe who doesn't bother to think of the civil liberties at stake when this can be justified as being in the self-interest of the citizens. Frankly, the sort of justification provided is not much different from the sort of crap spewed by every oppressive regime, be it National Socialist, Communist, Fascist, or otherwise.

[CPL CHUD]

I really can't get myself worked up over the government encouraging classrooms to diversify their enviroments in an attempt to facilitate learning. I'm not reactionary enough to see this as facist, and I'm not even sure if it really is a sin tax. It's inevitable that with the improvement of quality of life around the world that people would become more health conscious and for policy to reflect that. I just don't see rights being "gouged" here.

[Athena]

By the time they're being "gouged", CPL, we're in a bad spot. That's my point.

This isn't about diversifying the classroom (which can be done a number of ways without using sin taxes to fundraise). I don't agree with increasing prices to guide people toward healthy living (education, anyone?). Diversifying or funding education has been the "motivation" for every sin tax in my state, one of the sin tax meccas of the country. Of course, you can raise all the money you want and not see any improvement unless you spend it wisely, but I digress.

A sin tax is defined as a tax on anything that is considered a vice. With the APA having to even consider gaming as an addiction, not to mention the negative press that some video games and too much video games get, I think it solidly classifies as a vice.

But, I suppose, what it boils down to is at what point you disagree with price increases being used to regulate lifestyle. To me, it's simply a manipulation of the market and of the populace; a cheap trick. Not the sort of tactic I'd like made standard. It's the superficial way to better living. You may consider me to be reactionary, but it's not progress that I oppose, it's how we achieve it. I'd like to see my government employ more substantial, voluntary means by which to inspire good choices.

[ashdavus]

video games are a vice. TV...not necessarily so. Sure, alot of the programming on prime time these days isn't necessarily what you want your 5 year old watching...but what about the History Channel, Home and Garden TV, PBS. Why should I be taxed up the ass for TV if I'm watching educational programming? It's not right to tax everyone watching TV because SOME people are watching "sinful" programming. TV is not a vice...it's a right and a freedom.

I won't go into video games. They just piss me off.

[CPL CHUD]

I guess it definitely rests upon what your proverbial line may be. We are talking degrees here. The exteme views to the left and right will inevitablely begin looking the same, so I discard them. I don't see sin taxes, as they are, a bad thing, but if the slope creaps to one side it gets invasive, which I am opposed to. I'm against policy makers digging up new definitions of what "sin" is. If it stays static, then I'm fine with it, and this is coming from a guy that doesn't even think alcohol and tobacco should exist at all in the United States; considering their addictive qualities and the amount of damage they inflict on people's lives. I know that's an unpopular view, but they owe their fortune to being grandfathered in, that's it. I'm pro-choice where common good is preserved with individual rights, but after that I got to draw a line.

It makes me wonder what'd happend if slavery (the first sin tax) was grandfathered into our culture the way the South wanted it to be.

[Athena]

Individual right IS the common good. So long as people are free and able to make educated decisions, and their behavior does not negatively impact the next guy, we're okay.

We run into problems when the government unfairly props up or condemns industries. That kind of action, in either direction, lends itself to tyranny.

...and what is it with you two and slavery? :p

[TheMorningStar]

The government is not concerned with our health. I could load this post with examples of government turning a blind eye to polluters. There must be something else at work here. It is my opinion that it all comes down to the revenue stream.
Take a look at the cigarette taxes we pay. The government says that these taxes are to pay for the added health care cost of smokers where the opposite appears to be true. Same goes for the fatties.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22995659/
If every smoker were to quit tomorrow, lots of tax dollars would be lost and they need to be made somewhere else. Smokers are already quitting or buying smokes at indian reservations and the government is feeling the pinch.
Where does it end? Sugar, cheese, tea, ice cream, coffee? They are hedging their bets.

Some states are kinder than others. Tax table for you but it only shows gas, smokes, and booze.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html

[Athena]

Some states are kinder than others. Tax table for you but it only shows gas, smokes, and booze.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html

Washington (sales tax) 6.5% (gas tax) $0.36 (cig tax) $2.025 (alcohol tax) $19.43 (wine) $0.87 (beer) $0.26

Yep - Maybe this will help people understand why I'm a bit hypersensitive (although I don't think I am). Washington State doesn't fuck around with sin taxes. They make sure you feel that shit. We're the third most expensive state to smoke in and THE most expensive state to drink in. And, thanks to the GRT taxes, our sales tax is actually about 9%.

All for the kids, right? Yet we're 42nd out of 50 states in the nation at the K-12 level, last I checked. :rolleyes:

Great post, TMS.