The new paternalists advocate using excise taxes to discourage undesirable behavior and to offset costs imposed on third parties. But using tax policy to socially engineer behavior gives rise to another social pathology: wasteful political entrepreneurship.
Sin Taxes and Sindustry
Revenue, Paternalism, and Political Interest
By Adam J. Hoffer, William F. Shughart II, Michael D. Thomas
This article
appeared in
the Summer 2014 issue of The Independent Review.
Economic PolicyEconomyFederal Tax PolicyGovernment and PoliticsLaw and LibertyPolitical TheoryPublic ChoiceRegulationTaxesTaxes and BudgetThe Nanny State
Other Independent Review articles by Adam J. Hoffer | |
Fall 2015 | We Are Better Than This:How Government Should Spend Our Money |
Other Independent Review articles by William F. Shughart II | ||
Fall 2018 | Gordon Tullocks Critique of the Common Law | |
Summer 2017 | Robert D. Tollison:In Memoriam | |
Fall 2014 | The Institutional Revolution:Measurement and the Economic Emergence of the Modern World | |
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Other Independent Review articles by Michael D. Thomas | |
Spring 2018 | The Rise of the Regulatory State:Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Decline of Markets for Blood |
Spring 2018 | Inside Job:How Government Insiders Subvert the Public Interest |