(June 30, 2014 at 11:48 am)Rhythm Wrote:(June 30, 2014 at 11:46 am)blackout94 Wrote: Here we don't use the words 'Sin tax', only as a metaphor. These taxes are officially called Special Consumption Taxes (IEC's in my language, they all over the european union), even countries like sweden where a vast majority are atheists have these taxes. I do agree with you that some taxes denote a high level of puritanism and there are contradictions, the example you gave comparing blackjack and gasoline was good. This doesn't mean this kind of tax needs to go, when there is cons of an activity, taxes will be higher, this is the way it works. One of the main reasons for smoking tax is increased medical costs, specially here that healthcare is 'free' most people dislike the fact they are paying for smokers' healthcare.And I would dislike to have to pay for a snowboarders healthcare. Can we get some sin taxes passed on snowboarding? How about hockey? How about eating?
See this is what I keep telling to people. Why is everybody complaining about smokers healthcare? Smokers pay so many taxes that sometimes the money covers healthcare and some of it is used for completely unrelated expenses. Why don't we tax obese people since they don't pay extra taxes for eating too much? And diabetic? On the other hand, if one supports free healthcare you should support it even for people that have made bad decisions
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
