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That's not what a sin tax does. You are still free to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, and were we to tax social media usage, you would still be free to use o

That's not what a sin tax does. You are still free to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, and were we to tax social media usage, you would still be free to use or not use that. But a sin tax ostensibly accounts for the economic externality*. We know that cigarettes impose a cost on society beyond the individual smoker. I'm all in favor of making people pay for things that we know cause damage to society more broadly. And I hardly think it's controversial that social media is in many aspects harmful to society. *Sin taxes are technically different than pigovian taxes, but I and I think most people tend to use the terms interchangeably.

parineum 5y ago
> We know that cigarettes impose a cost on society beyond the individual smoker What's that cost? From what I've read, all economic costs smokers impose on society are more than made up for in their dying early, they actually cost less [1]. I guess everyone should smoke to save the state money! [1] https://pantagraph.com/news/fact-check-do-smokers-cost-society-more-money/article_70a37eed-004b-5ccc-bc8c-95ac16227d98.html https://pantagraph.com/news/fact-check-do-smokers-cost-socie...