Taxing Twenty-First Century Sins

Abstract

Paternalists have recently turned their attention toward meat, plastic bags, automation, and carbon. Each one allegedly creates tax-justifying externalities: meat harms the environment and health; plastic bags have a negative environmental impact; automation—whether through artificial intelligence or robots—displaces workers; carbon feeds climate change. But time and time again, experts and policymakers appeal to questionable social science to make a case for a tax on these products. For each one, the weight of all the evidence—not just what experts highlight—suggests that no tax is warranted.