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I think it is important to recognize that taxes when used for anything other then revenue are highly unethical and should be opposed by the population

• evo 6y ago
  I feel like they're one of the only tools we have collectively as a society to counteract "tragedy of the commons"/negative externality situations. Is a tax that brings the financial costs of an action in line with its distributed societal costs that unethical?
  • syshum 6y ago
    Government taxation is very very ineffective tool, and rarely accomplishes that goal. I would love for you to cite and example of a taxation scheme in use today that is right now countering an actual negative externality Governments do not have a track record for being trust worthily enough to be placed in charge of controlling externalities, it would inevitably be used to usurp power, and liberty from the people, while unjustly enriching their political allies. This happens time and time again yet people still believe government is not only the "best" way to control things, but more stockily believe it is the "only" way to do so despite 1000's of years of historical record proving otherwise
    • dontreact 6y ago
      What are alternatives to controlling negative externalities? My understanding is that they are by definition not fixable by the free market, and anything that is not the free market is government essentially.
      • ghostwriter 6y ago
        privatise everything so that the owners are able to sue those who negatively impact their assets https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/if-you-want-to-save-the-elephants-privatize-them https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/if-you-want-to-save-the-e...
        • fighterpilot 6y ago
          How would that work for air pollution?
          • Consultant32452 6y ago
            How would suing them work?
            • fighterpilot 6y ago
              How does that get around the free rider problem? If someone is polluting the air, they're making everyone's life worse by epsilon. If I'm to sue them, all the cost of the lawsuit is privatized, and all the benefit is socialized
              • Consultant32452 6y ago
                As opposed to the current system where they still pollute, they still kill you, but you're not even allowed to sue because the state owns the air/water and lets them pollute and you get no compensation.
                • fighterpilot 6y ago
                  It's a good point that the air being fully public leads to a tragedy of the commons situation. Either way, we're asking a lot of the comperence of the system. If the air were privatized we'd still need a legal system that isn't corrupted by special interests. Since it'd still be (I'm assuming) a representative democratic process that creates that system, corporatism is still possible. Thoughts? I've always seen a pollution tax as a Libertarian friendly solution to air pollution. A libertarian system needs to raise some tax money, so isn't it better that all tax money comes from a tax on externalities ? If we don't tax externalities then aren't we left to tax productive activity which is even worse?
                  • syshum 6y ago
    • imtringued 6y ago
      Singapore has high taxes on cars to reduce congestion. People stopped driving. Germany has high taxes on gasoline. People buy more efficient cars. Norway has taxes on ICEs but no taxes on EVs. Lots of people buy EVs. Land value taxes reduce the economic loss caused by rent seeking. Carbon taxes reduce CO2 emissions. >This happens time and time again yet people still believe government is not only the "best" way to control things, but more stockily believe it is the "only" way to do so despite 1000's of years of historical record proving otherwise Who cares about the last 1000 years of historical record when the necessity of government activity only depends on the current state of the economy? There are barely any absolutes in economics, almost everything depends on the situation in question.
  • fighterpilot 6y ago
    Almost no taxes are based on negative externalities. I'd love it if that changes, but productive activity is primarily what's taxed, unfortunately.