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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (120692)	9/9/2009 1:29:10 PM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542031

It's mostly a question of offsetting the costs from various things. We regulate and tax pollution because it creates a social cost. We have generally managed to limit the idea of taxing social costs to a few exceptions. The addition of soft drinks (and likely fast food) is going to obliterate the previous line and open us up to any number of new behavior taxes. What benefit do extreme sports provide and how much do they cost? How much should we tax rock climbing, skydiving or skiing? TV is a source of any number of ills in society (both healthcare and otherwise), why shouldnt we impose a tax based on the number of hours of watched? How about home internet access? Any of the above could be justified on the basis of social costs. Of course, there would be some upside....a World of Warcraft tax would probably pay for the entire health care bill <g>. Slacker