Support For Sin Tax
- Some argue tobacco and alcohol consumption or the behaviors associated with consumption or both are immoral, or "sinful", hence the label "sin tax". By raising the cost for certain products (here called immoral), they aim to force change upon people's behavior.
- Tobacco and alcohol consumption has been linked to a variety of medical problems. In the United States alone, over 440,000 people die annually from smoking tobacco. By making the cost of unhealthy behavior prohibitive, they hope to produce a healthier society.
- Following the medical argument, some argue that consumers of tobacco and alcohol cause a greater financial burden on society by forcing others to pay for medical treatment of conditions stemming from such consumption, especially in most first-world countries with government-funded healthcare, and should be taxed extra to pay for the costs of their treatment.
Adam Smith supported the medical and moral arguments in The Wealth of Nations: “It has for some time been the policy of Great Britain to discourage the consumption of spirituous liquors, on account of their supposed tendency to ruin the health and corrupt the morals of the common people.” The moral, medical and financial arguments are occasionally considered in contemporary news settings.
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Famous quotes containing the words support, sin and/or tax:
“A clergyman, again, can hardly ever allow himself to look facts fairly in the face. It is his profession to support one side; it is impossible, therefore, for him to make an unbiased examination of the other.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“I am a little world made cunningly
Of elements, and an angelic sprite;
But black sin hath betrayed to endless night
My world’s both parts, and Oh! both parts must die.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)