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I think sin taxes are marginal, ultimately. I have nothing against them, but I don't think they change the game in fundamental ways.

• WalterBright 11y ago
  Historically, they do. People talk about high marginal tax rates in the 1950s, but few to nobody actually paid those rates. This was because there were a lot of tax shelter options available, and deductions were a lot looser. Reagan got the tax reductions through Congress by agreeing to eliminate the tax shelters and tightening up a lot on deductions. The result was a massive shift out of relatively unproductive tax shelter investments into more productive ones. Although I've never seen this opinion in print, I suspect a lot of the economic growth that resulted was a consequence of this shift in investments.