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More than three centuries ago, the Duc de La
Rochefoucauld observed that Hypocrisy is the homage vice
pays to virtue.
Were he around today, he would change that to
National health care is the price vice pays to
virtue,
in that the Clinton Administration plans to pay
for health-care reform, in part, with sin taxes
--
increased levies on vices like alcohol and tobacco.
Contemporary wisdom holds that smokers are a burden on the health-care system, and the excise tax on tobacco doesn't come close to meeting those costs. But any honest public-health professional will tell you that smokers are a bargain for the taxpayer -- they die earlier, thus reducing pension costs, and they die quickly rather than linger in the hospital for weeks, thus reducing Medicare costs.
Further, increasing taxes might inspire people to grow their own tobacco, which would mean BATF agents to patrol private gardens, just as the DEA does now in search of other herbs cultivated by our founding fathers. Those dramatic helicopter and tank raids don't come cheap, and so other taxes might well rise if tobacco were taxed more.
At any rate, taxing a vice, like gambling in lotteries, in order to provide for the common welfare, like state parks, is a fact of political life. However, the concept of taxing unhealthy activities to fund health should be extended.
For instance, sloth is hard on your health, and it doesn't get much worse than sprawling across the sofa while running the TV or stereo with the remote control.
The average American watches 1,072 hours of TV a year. We'll exempt 30 minutes a week for the worthwhile fare, and tax the rest at $1 an hour. This will raise $260 billion.
We can raise more by making it fair, because feminists will argue that this tax is unjust since women watch 17 percent more TV than men do. Charge a nickel for every click of the remote-control, a reputedly masculine vice, and we can raise another $200 billion, at least.
Assessing the tax should be straightforward, since cable systems already have most of the technology. You'd just pay it along with the monthly bill.
There's also music. If you go out for live music, you'll get healthy exercise from dancing. Staying home with the stereo is thus the unhealthy alternative.
What's a fair tax? The cover charge when there's a band at the Victoria Tavern is $2 for four hours of live music -- 50 cents an hour.
Figure the average tape or CD runs about an hour, and you listen to it once a month for three years, for 36 hours at 50 cents, or $18. We bought 801 million albums in 1991, so this sin tax would bring in $14.5 billion.
Doubtless there are other ways to enhance revenue from the unhealthy ways of couch potatoes, but we ought not to neglect other noxious vices.
Foods rich in sodium and fat supposedly hurt your health
and shorten your life. It's hard to find figures for
spending on greasy oversalted junk food,
but it's
probably safe to assume that a third of all food spending
-- grocery store or restaurant -- falls into this toxic
category.
The average household spent $4,296 on food in 1990, which means $1,432 in junk food, and revenues of $716 with a 50-percent excise tax. Across 100 million households, there's $71.6 billion.
So far, we've figured out how to raise $546.1 billion, and there remain many appealing vices left to tax: pistol bullets, stupid sex, auto trips of less than five miles, coffee, chocolate, etc.
But those could wait. We'll spend about $900 billion on health care this year, of which $400 billion is already paid by taxes. The above sin taxes will more than cover the remaining $500 million.
Extend the sin taxes to cover other vices, and we can paying down the national deficit and have a good time in the process.
Sin taxes are a great way to pay for national health care, but why haven't they figured out that smokers and drinkers aren't the only sinners?
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