2 ms·

That's funny, you'd think they'd have figured out historically that this probably isn't going to work very well. It's easy to place a sin tax on tobacco because

That's funny, you'd think they'd have figured out historically that this probably isn't going to work very well. It's easy to place a sin tax on tobacco because it's a pain in the ass for people to grow and process it themselves at home. But it's significantly harder to raise taxes high enough to discourage people from using a product if they can just make it at home in a five gallon jug with water, sugar, and baking yeast.

Retric 3y ago
> discourage people from using a product if they can just make it at home in a five gallon jug with water, sugar, and baking yeast. That’s not really the goal. Getting the person drinking a bottle of hard liquor a night to cut back even 10% makes a difference. Forcing people to constantly make more to keep up with a serious alcohol problem is a larger barrier than the kind of taxes we had 20 years ago. Essentially, across millions of people even seemingly small changes can have significant impact in aggregate. Or at least that’s the argument.
- ultimafan 3y ago
  That's fair, I completely didn't take into account how much some people tend to drink and how much space it would take up if you're planning on brewing enough for daily drinking indefinitely. I guess it depends on how much they're planning on pushing the taxes up. I can't see Australia style taxes working out because of how easy it is to brew relatively strong and still palatable alcohol just about anywhere. Someone will pick up the slack. Legalized marijuana didn't kill off the black market in some states because it's still significantly cheaper to purchase quality and quantity outside of a dispensary due to tax costs.