Taxes work beautifully as an incentive by changing people's utility gradient. "Don't smoke if you want to raise your utility!" "Don't drive a gas-burning car if

Taxes work beautifully as an incentive by changing people's utility gradient. "Don't smoke if you want to raise your utility!" "Don't drive a gas-burning car if you want to raise your utility!" I suspect that taxes work less well when the whole point is to lower people's utility. "Lower your utility or we'll do it for you!"