By Ranjit Singh
“The power to tax is the power to destroy,” said Founding Father and Fourth Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall. His comment was made in the context of a specific case (McCulloch v. Maryland), but it holds axiomatic value. We see it in government policy all around us.
Taxation is used as a lever to engineer social behaviors. Whatever the government wants less of, it taxes heavily to make it costly to indulge in. Examples include various “sin” taxes such as those imposed on alcohol or tobacco or soda. Even Carbon taxes can be thought of as a sin tax, punishing behaviors that ostensibly cause planetary harm.
Whatever the government wants more of, it subsidizes heavily or makes it tax-free. Solar panels are a good example of heavy subsidization. We also see the use of taxation to engineer specific outcomes or behaviors in sales tax “holidays”.
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