Start Date: January 8, 2022
From the Christian Bible:
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But before you die, what will the government do?
At some point you have probably heard the expression “sin tax”. It applies to government taxes on what might be deemed questionable behavior or decisions. In the metaphor of “a carrot and a stick” for incentives and deterrents this might lead you to believe that the government is attempting to cure your behavior. But many of these behaviors are in fact addictions which are only overcome by internal change. The government is often not the healer, but, indirectly or directly, the purveyor or the pimp who takes its cut.
CIGARETTES
Cigarettes are very unhealthy. Access to smoking has been greatly reduced year after year. The horrors of tobacco and the evils of the producers are regaled by governments. Yet they would never dream of fully banning them. No, it isn’t because of a belief in your basic personal liberties. It is just too much money to resist. Tobacco taxes are a huge source of free money for the government. As of 2018 the WSJ estimated that the average price of a pack of cigarettes in NYC was $14, with a legally required minimum price of $13 [1]. As of 2023 the state adds a tax of $5.35 per pack [2]. Another $1.50 is from the city tax [3] and $1.01 is the federal tax [4]. That makes a grand total of $7.86.
So, despite having no cost, the combined governments, primarily the state, is making equivalent revenue from the sale of cigarettes as the tobacco companies and distributors. While I am not suggesting any subsidy for the tobacco industry, one does have to wonder about NYC wanting to ban sugary drinks that generate no tax revenue, while continuing with the sale of cigarettes at the highest profit margin in the nation. Like marijuana in CA (see below) the result tends to be an illegal black market which comes with its own problems. New York is deemed to be a smuggling empire [5]. More illegal purchases lower the state’s revenues inspiring them to increase the taxes ever more.
If you are addicted to cigarettes you can, and I hope you do, find help to quit. But it it is unlikely that a price increase will cease your addiction. You will simply have less resources for help. So the government settles for profiting on your suicide while demonizing the tobacco industry for doing the same.
MARIJUANA
Over the recent decades marijuana has been legalized in various states. Initially it was claimed that the use would only be medical. One of its most advertised benefits was the treatment of nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Therefore I naively thought it would be prescribed by standard practice physicians, distributed at mainstream pharmacies, or provided to patients at chemotherapy centers. I was wrong.
Ironically this is at a time when the product has become much more potent and dangerous, particularly to young people. Moreover the primary form of product intake is via inhalation, despite having similar problems with toxicity and carcinogenicity as conventional tobacco cigarettes, as well as memory loss and paranoia. We may as well give people a pack of Marlboros for their ills. It has became almost impossible to legally smoke tobacco cigarettes in any public spaces over concerns regarding 2nd hand smoke. Yet states allow toxic and mentally impairing marijuana to be smoked in public areas.
Why? Well there was money to be had and the convenience of not having to enforce laws. The fact that it was being abused as a “medical” resource was ignored and in fact led to the decision to further legalize marijuana. The recreational marijuana has a slew of taxes on growers, distributers, sales etc. that can add up to nearly 50%. Sounds a bit like cigarettes in NYC. But the down side is that the customers had been getting recreational, disguised as medical, marijuana for a lower price for decades. The result has been a surge in illegal growers and criminal elements taking over parts of CA. But still the dispensaries collect city and state taxes for a substance that is increasingly causing major health issues and leading youth on a path to destructive substance addiction.
ALCOHOL
One of the oldest, and least successful, efforts to ban substances was known as “Prohibition”. The effort to criminalize sale and consumption of alcohol was led primarily by women who felt that alcohol led to the destruction of families and mistreatment of women. Perhaps true, yet a product which has near universal consumption is difficult to deny. Amazingly the movement was temporarily successful and resulted in passing the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It failed miserably and spawned ubiquitous underground illegal drinking establishments and organized crime associated with the production and distribution. The 18th Amendment begat the 21st Amendment, repealing the aforementioned.
It is fair to argue that these bans and deterrents are less relevant as there are many adults who can enjoy a glass of wine with a meal without ending up an unemployed homeless addict on the street. Italy and France are known for fine wines paired with fine food. Life goes on as does the sale of alcohol.
This lack of fentanyl like threat makes it stranger that in Pennsylvania the response is not “if you can’t beat them, join them”, but to actually replace them. In PA liquor is sold only in government owned and run “state stores”. Limited hours, selection, and no competition for price. All money goes to the state and public union jobs. In the rest of the country it was adequate to simply let the private sector provide easy access and then tax like crazy and hope your citizens are inclined to enjoy spirits, hopefully not while driving.
Looking up the history of state stores in PA it seems they were the part of the reversal of prohibition, during which time alcohol sales were part of major criminal enterprises. It was deemed a way to restrain bootlegging [6].
Fair enough. But it has been nearly a century since alcohol sales were legalized. In many states it can be purchased at grocery and drug stores, making me wonder why there are still liquor stores.
There have in fact been efforts to privatize alcohol sales of alcohol in PA, an expression that must bring giggles to the rest of the country. But once an industry becomes the gravy train of government union jobs good luck ever removing it from the clutches of the state. So if you do have an alcohol addiction you can take civic pride in paying extra revenue to the state, as is the case with..
GAMBLING
With the exception of Las Vegas, gambling has historically been illegal in most of the United States. But government can never resist finding a way to benefit through taxes. So one after another state realized the opportunity to collect a “voluntary” tax by setting up a lottery run by the state, while maintaining the criminality of private gambling enterprise. Monopolies seem to be acceptable to the government if they are government entities. Whatever worries the citizenry may have had were assuaged by promises that the massive revenues would cover the costs of some desired social service, such as schools or services for the elderly. Now all but a few states have lotteries. So did that new and vast supply of revenue solve all your states funding issues? Are you still paying state income, sales, and property taxes?
Not only that, some of those revenues are being used to run ad campaigns to lure people to spend money they don’t have on a fantasy that, statistically, won’t happen [7].
One might ask who falls for this scam. Sadly it seems that the lottery appeals most to those who can least afford it. Remember it is essentially a purchase with a 100% sales tax except for the winner. The Journalist’s Resource indicates that the highest rate of gambling occurs with people in the bottom 20% income bracket [8]. These are households making on the order of $20,000 or less [9], presumably on welfare.
What circular logic. Tax working Americans to help the poor. Seduce them to spend money, that should be used for necessities, on lottery tickets. Then use the proceeds to advertise so they remain hooked on the fantasy.
SO …..
So it seems that while our sins may be punished with death, the government will be enthusiastically taxing our vices and profiting from addictions until that day comes.
REFERENCES
[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rising-cost-of-cigarettes-doesnt-stop-all-smokers-1532440800
[2] https://www.lung.org/policy-advocacy/tobacco/slati/current-state-taxes
[4] https://assets.tobaccofreekids.org/factsheets/0222.pdf
[5] https://www.mackinac.org/blog/2023/cigarette-taxes-turn-new-york-into-smuggling-empire
[6] https://pavineco.com/plcb-history-pennsylvania-liquor-control-board-why/
[7] xhttps://apnews.com/article/entertainment-texas-education-lotteries-ba49f84f41fc63b739443513418d1ffc
[8] https://journalistsresource.org/economics/research-review-lotteries-demographics
[9] https://statisticalatlas.com/United-States/Household-Income