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> The purpose of a tax can be to curb some type of behavior, such as carbon emissions or water usage or road usage. They're to collect money for the government
by colejohnson66 4y ago
> The purpose of a tax can be to curb some type of behavior, such as carbon emissions or water usage or road usage.
They're to collect money for the government so that it can do things (or just sit on the money if you're a king). King George didn't tax the colonies because he wanted them to stop doing things; he did it because he wanted the money. In more modern times, a government raises taxes to pay for new roads or whatnot.
Using taxes as punishment is just a nice benefit that the government can wield.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoThat is why I wrote “can be”. For example, variable rate tolling. Free to drive on an empty road in the middle of the night, but very expensive during peak traffic times to reduce chances of gridlock and incentivize spreading out demand to non peak times, or disincentive using the road period.