Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Sin Tax indexed to Sin Cost

Develop a sin tax to only cover the cost of the "sin"
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This may very well be baked somewhere as it was probably the original intention of the sin tax but ... it seems to me that no government can resist channeling sin tax revenue into the "general revenue" pot. Not only does this not compensate society for the costs of these "sins", governments become so reliant on these revenue streams, their budgets are constructed with the hope that these "sins" continue.

My solution is to index the sin tax to the actual cost of the sin. So, for example, if it is found that alcohol related illness is costing the state X dollars per year (medical, policing costs) and Y litres of alcohol is consumed per year, then the tax is X/Y dollars per litre. A law would have to be created to ensure that this money goes directly into the appropriate budget (Health care, Law enforcement).

This way if the government wants to fund a new stadium or freeway they will have to come up with a legitimate business model rather than just snatch the money from the Health Care budget.

Sure some governments will still try to cheat and put this money into general coffers but if the implentation of the sin tax is clearly defined in the first place, the watchdogs would be all over them as soon as they step out of line.

vector, Nov 06 2010

alcohol 'most harmful drug' multicriteria analysis http://www.scienced...11/101101162138.htm
now i wonder where pron, WoW, and the HB fit on that scale? [afinehowdoyoudo, Nov 06 2010]

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       Buy two sins get one free!
daseva, Nov 06 2010
  

       Yay! The money raised from skydiving could go toward the provision of huge bouncy castles on drop-zones!
MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 06 2010
  

       So...two wrongs make a write off?   

       handguns, under this theory, should bear the inestimably high tax of "the value of human life itself".
WcW, Nov 07 2010
  
      
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