No. of Recommendations: 1
The way "taxes are supposed to work" is purely a political question to be determined by the federal and state legistlatures through the political process, subject to whatever restrictions are imposed by the federal and state constitutions.
Let's really crank up taxes on things that are just no good for people. That would serve to both collect revenue and to discourage people from buying things that are no good for them.
Some examples:
Alcohol
Cigarettes, vapes
Lottery tickets/sports gambling etc.
Junk food, ultra processed food, convenience foods, foods with a lot of sugar or high fructose corn syrup added.
Some would also add fossil fuels to this list, those would be ProGlibs mostly.
Some would also add guns and other weapons to this list.
Now, it has to be admitted that such taxes for the most part are extremely regressive as poor people spend a disproportionate amount of their income and income substitutes such as SNAP benefits and WIC on unhealthy food, cigarettes, liquor, lottery tickets, and so on.
Please don't come back with excuses such as poor people are stupid and don't have autonomy to be able to make their own choices and are in food deserts (caused by blue city politicians allowing crime by poor people to run rampant).
If you think poor people are too stupid and lack autonomy and self-discipline to make good choices, then you should be totally in favor of making "sin taxes" painful to the point of being confiscatory.
Lowering taxes on the poor would just encourage their unhealthy habits.
We wouldn't want that now, would we? Not if we are good little ProGlibs.
