Re:10% of households pay more than 80% of taxes on alcohol a...
by tomrod on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @05:40PM
(#29006665)
> The issue is that vice taxes tend to be highly regressive.
For a cross-sectional view this is certainly true. At a single point in time, a high tax rate impacts people who are more economically vulnerable more than those that are wealthier. However, does the causality hold if we consider this over time?
Addictive substances use -> economically impoverished, or economically impoverished -> addictive substances use?
To me it seems many folks use addictive substances to self medicate in absence (or in spite of) a universal healthcare system. And then when economically improving opportunities come may have less capacity to claim them.
Do we look at it this way? Does it matter? General open questions.
For a cross-sectional view this is certainly true. At a single point in time, a high tax rate impacts people who are more economically vulnerable more than those that are wealthier. However, does the causality hold if we consider this over time?
Addictive substances use -> economically impoverished, or economically impoverished -> addictive substances use?
To me it seems many folks use addictive substances to self medicate in absence (or in spite of) a universal healthcare system. And then when economically improving opportunities come may have less capacity to claim them.
Do we look at it this way? Does it matter? General open questions.