3 ms·
Anything that's a monopoly good whose supply is fixed & unchangeable. Things like the electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbitals, fisheries, carbon emissions
by nostrademons 6y ago
Anything that's a monopoly good whose supply is fixed & unchangeable. Things like the electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbitals, fisheries, carbon emissions, rights-of-way, drilling rights, etc. Note that there's a bit of a continuum between "natural resource" and "externality" - on one hand you have something like land, on the other carbon emissions, but those are just two sides of the same concept.
If we moved to a system where data about a person was owned by the person rather than the corporate entity that collected the data, then usage of that data is another good candidate for taxation.
- snidane 6y agoThe reason why these "taxes" are efficient is really because they are payments for privileges the monopolists get from the government on behalf of the community. They are perfect pay-per-use scheme, the more privilege you consume, the more you pay. One can argue whether these are really taxes or just privilege fees. That's why groups such as single-tax or zero-tax propose that society can be run efficiently without taxes, because really the only "taxes" you need are those monopoly based ones.