Sunday, April 19, 2015

Should meat be taxed like alcohol and cigarettes?

At this time of year, the last thing anyone wants to think about is paying more taxes. But there's one tax I'm in favor of - and you should be, too, if you care about your health and the health of the planet: a sin tax on meat, cheese and other animal-based foods. If Congress were to levy a 10-cent tax on every pound of meat sold in grocery stores and restaurants - and a modest sin tax on each dairy item and carton of eggs - it would not only stimulate the economy but also give people yet another incentive to give tasty vegan foods a try, which would then help to reduce the nation's health care costs and its Sasquatch-size carbon footprint. Americans have to pay excise taxes on cigarettes, alcohol and gasoline to help offset the health and environmental costs of these items, so it's not too much of a leap to expect people to pay extra for unhealthy - and unnecessary - foods that harm people and animals, waste resources and contribute to climate change.  Before you balk at the thought of more taxes, consider this: We pay a tax on gasoline in order to motivate us to conserve fossil fuels, which in turn is aimed at reducing pollution and combating climate change, so shouldn't we also pay a tax on animal-based foods for the very same reasons?...more


So wrong, for so many reasons. Take for instance, the author's assertion concerning the gasoline tax:

We pay a tax on gasoline in order to motivate us to conserve fossil fuels, which in turn is aimed at reducing pollution and combating climate change

I'm pretty sure Ike and the 1956 Congress weren't thinking of global warming, climate change or reducing pollution when they passed the Federal Aid Highway Act, which created the federal fuels tax and the Highway Trust Fund. The purpose of the tax and fund: to build the Interstate Highway System. You know, so we could drive bigger rigs farther and faster and burn more fossil fuels than ever before. I know, Al Gore may have told you he invented the Interstate HWY System, but it just ain't so. The fund has been amended for mass transit and leaking underground storage tanks (I think Al Gore actually did invent those) and increased twice for deficit reduction. Sorry, no global warming. 

Then you state new taxes on meat and dairy products would "stimulate the economy."  How can that be when your cool Keynesian cohorts advocate tax increases to "cool off" an economy?

I'm sick of these so-called "sin" taxes anyway.  There wasn't anything about smokin', drinkin' whiskey or milk, eatin' meat or scramblin' your eggs in those clay tablets anyway. If there's a sin, its the corrupt implementation of our tax system itself.  If you have to tax something, then tax the Congress critters, IRSers and their enablers who created this morally corrupt system and leave the rest of us alone to go our merry way.


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