Direct Taxation Preference

Commenters advocate for directly taxing undesirable activities, luxuries, or consumption instead of regulations, surcharges, or other interventions, emphasizing taxes' role in discouraging behaviors and shaping incentives.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Politics & Society
5,296
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#59
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
33
2009
52
2010
111
2011
84
2012
112
2013
158
2014
175
2015
210
2016
327
2017
356
2018
350
2019
533
2020
449
2021
585
2022
446
2023
492
2024
349
2025
450
2026
24

Keywords

e.g VERY DeLong MTS VAT WWE TV GDP BI tax taxes economists taxation consumption vat bi higher universally regressive

Sample Comments

tim333 • Feb 28, 2018 • View on HN

They could tax them to avoid that.

google234123 • Jan 2, 2024 • View on HN

Just increase tax a bit more to make up for it :)

datavirtue • Apr 12, 2024 • View on HN

If you want less of something, tax it.

mam2 • Nov 15, 2020 • View on HN

It would make more sense to just tax them..

manigandham • Jul 10, 2018 • View on HN

Maybe consider that it's how taxes are actually used instead of just higher taxes?

bryanh • Oct 8, 2011 • View on HN

I don't understand this logic, what would the higher tax accomplish?

pas • Nov 20, 2023 • View on HN

it's possible to tax luxury stuff more, etc.

mtgx • Dec 3, 2018 • View on HN

How is it so ingenious? It's very common to tax the things you don't want your citizens to use much of. Like taxing alcohol or drinks with sugar, etc.

geon • Mar 13, 2017 • View on HN

You should just tax it instead.

rsynnott • Sep 2, 2021 • View on HN

This is a pretty bizarre approach; surely it would make more sense just to _tax_ them? This is for practical purposes a targeted tax anyway.