"Jeff Grippe" wrote in message
...
The governments (federal, state and local) in the U.S. (and many other
countries) use taxes to discourage behavior and tax breaks to encourage
behavior. I am merely recommending the proper use of this common policy
tool.


Wow! A real discussion with substance.

Part of the problem is that taxes (and tax breaks) are used for too many
things.

Some taxes are obviously used to fund the basic operations of government
and the services it provides.

Other taxes are used to specifically discourage behavior such as
cigarette.

Some tax breaks are used to encourage behavior.

The problem is that all of these things get jumbled up. The bean counters
come to rely on the revenue generated by the "sin taxes" and want to keep
the breaks to a minimum so that they can balance the books. You can say
something like "We are going to tax all X's in order to provide Y's" (cars
for bike lanes, etc.) but the X's are going to complain and the Y's are
going to view what they've got as an entitlement. You will get the X lobby
fighting for the repeal of the tax and the Y lobby insisting that their
service must continue to be provided. The people whose job it is to make
the budge work try to please as many as possible (being part of a
political system) but ultimately the stronger lobby wins.

As liberal as I am, I can see some of the arguements for smaller
government. Government is a grossly inefficient thing. The problem is that
there are gaps a mile wide in what the free market will provide in terms
of basic human services. If food, clothing, shelter, education, and health
care are basic human rights, then the free market will not, of its own
accord, provide a basic level of these things to everyone. Why should it?
Corporations are supposed to make profits not provide basic human
services. It took workers organizing for companies to provide good working
conditions, shorter hours, higher pay, benefits, etc.

The revolution isn't coming, however. So the system that we've got is one
in which those who can push hardest might be able to get what they want.
You want lockers and showers? Find a way to deliver a large block of votes
and you might get them. Or find a philanthropist who believes in lockers
and showers and get a foundation started. Be careful, however. Foundations
can be almost as inefficient as governments.

Jeff


The idea of entitlements knows no limits. Therefore the inefficient use of
tax money knows no practical limits other than the amount of money in the
government coffers at any given time. Once citizens discovered they could
vote themselves money out of the public weal entitlements were off and
running to the point that someone who doesn't reach the work place in an air
conditioned car wants the government to force the installation of a shower
and locker on private property for their private use. The cost is not only
the actual cost, but is also the cost of lost opportunity for a better and
more efficient use of this money.

How did anyone on this planet survive for those millions of years before the
invention of under arm deodorant and automobile air conditioners? Wouldn't
they too seem to be a basic human right, Jeff?