Not taxes on cancer-causing-things. Forget that. Just tax people who get cancer.
Because that's what's bad about cigarettes. Not the smoking itself, but the cancer. We want less of that!
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Dan_Frank: Just to belabor the point: if you tax something that people want to do you might get less, as people adjust their behavior.
But most people are already trying not to die. Likely trying as hard as they care to try. So the line of reasoning doesn't really apply here.
I know, I know, it's a joke. But still.
Ok, if you're going to take this with deadly seriousness... the joke can be taken as pointing out why "death tax" is a silly name. The tax is not on the act of dying, it's on the act of passing on an estate to your heirs. Now maybe we don't actually want less of this, that's a separate discussion; but if you insist on calling it a "death tax" then you should be prepared to accept that it's a useful tool for making people live longer.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
