10 - wouldn't legalizing (and taxing) pot tend to (automatically) increase consumption of sweets, thus giving society a "two-fer" in terms of tax gains?

9 - if we're taxing this stuff because its harmful, shouldn't the taxes be used on education and medical intervention to offset the harm which these substance do? i.e. all pot taxes should be used for drug counselling and interdiction, like we (originally) planned with tobacco taxes

8 - can (will) this argument be used to apply taxes to other anti-social activiites, such as porn consumption, prostitution, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, heroin addiction, excessive TV or internet use?

7 - are you okay with government deducing (and recording) your consumption of pot, prostitution, etc based on taxes paid?

6 - are the tobacco company settlements and taxes actually being used to treat the medical costs of smokers, and deter new smokers? if not, why not, and does this function as a scary precedent for new taxes?

5 - why are our highways and bridges falling apart, if we collect billions in gasoline, tolls, and vehicle registration taxes?

4 - if something is really detrimental to society, aren't we better off making it outright illegal, instead of taxing the underclass which always seems to be the first to be ensnared in addictive activiities? Should urban poor and school dropouts pay the preponderance in these sorts of regressive taxes?

3 - why can an 18 year old vote, buy a house, enlist in the military and fire weapons, act in a porn film, but NOT buy a beer? If beer is that unsafe, do we want to legalize other drugs?

2 - should sin taxes vary by amount (and sin) whenever the party controlling the white house and congress changes hands? they seem to have radically different ideas of sins. Suppose you implement a pot tax during democrat control, and the republicans quadruple it?

1 - is there any example from history where taxes were successfully used to modify human nature, and weren't, in the end, just another way for government to take money from citizens for its own uncontrollable uses?

"7 - are you okay with government deducing (and recording) your consumption of pot, prostitution, etc based on taxes paid?"

legalizing prostitution in such a way that the hookers are entrepreneurs, independent business owners. they pay taxes, the state issues a license that comes with doctor's inspection and of course proof of citizenship or legal right to work in the US, the girls get protection from the cops, and everybody happy. this will also put the slave trade out of business, well except for cheapskates in price competition. but it will reduce the illegal market significantly.

is there any example from history where taxes were successfully used to modify human nature, and weren't, in the end, just another way for government to take money from citizens for its own uncontrollable uses?

Property tax enforcement discourages "slum lords" from letting properties stagnate. Without property taxes, you'd see at least some owners just sit on lots until the market value rose high enough to sell at a profit.

It's a basic rule of economics that a higher price encourages decreased demand, by the way.

And I find it funny that you are using pot as a counter-reference, as if you are some kind of warrior for legalization. Everybody knows you are possibly the last person in the country who thinks the Drug War is a great idea.

baltimore aureole:

8 - can (will) this argument be used to apply taxes to other anti-social activiites, such as porn consumption, prostitution, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, heroin addiction, excessive TV or internet use?

As sure as night follows day.

I agree with #9- why isn't the money used to help with education and intervention?

Remember the tobacco lawsuits? I'm from PA, and I know that they wasted a great deal of that money on a program that keeps seniors in the home, as opposed to a nursing home. ( I work for a medical equipment company). Not by keeping them in the home, but giving them whatever they saw on TV that day- certain brands of lotion, Icy hot patches, body washes, and other things that are not covered by Medicaid. These items dried up as soon as that tobacco money did- the same patients can no longer receive the special lotions, etc. that they formerly received, because they are now just covered by the normal Medicaid budget. Does that seem like a good use of anyone's money?!

All of this tax money just goes into the general fund, and our politicians keep finding new things not related to the original sin that was taxed to spend it on.

over the past several years congress keeps introducting/debating bills to REQUIRE that certain transactions be paid with checks and credit cards, to make sure that income is appropriate recorded at the banks, and taxes paid.

self employed entrepreneurs (prostitutes, drug dealers) who don't get W2 forms from their employers might logically be a target of such legislation

decrepit, out of code properties abound in baltimore, as they do in new york, chicago, detroit, etc.

i am unaware of how property taxes encourage owners to keep their units up to code.

isn't that what property code inspectors do?

baltimore aureole:

decrepit, out of code properties abound in baltimore, as they do in new york, chicago, detroit, etc.

i am unaware of how property taxes encourage owners to keep their units up to code.

isn't that what property code inspectors do?

If the owners are paying their taxes, there ain't shit you can do. But it's a rather poor businessman who continues to bear an expense without any return on the investment.

But your basic point is all wrong. If taxes do nothing to encourage (or discourage) behavior, then why not jack the damned things up?

Why the hell would you tax porn? Porno is a basic "men's rights" issue, since it liberates the male orgasm from the scheming ways of women.

That's always been my gripe about the drinking age: at 18 we say a young man is responsible enough to be in the Army and decide whether or not to kill someone, but that same guy is too IRresponsible to sit in his own house and have a beer with his dinner.

Nope. Not right.