Wednesday, December 7, 2011

"The Sumptuary Manifesto"

After reading this excerpt it made me think about all the taxes that we had been discussing in class. If we really did tax everything that a person ate to stop obesity, and to tax each extra yard of clothing, in a society with so many rules and taxes no one would ever flourish. There would be no choice, no preference, and if people did develop preferences and choice those would be taxed as well. We have learned that taxes do nothing except change the behavior of buyers, which we see clearly in this article. In the society described with all of the imposed and proposed taxes the buyers wouldn't even have a "behavior" and if they did it would be very limited because their choice and preferences are limited. There would be no true economic system with fluctuating supply and demand. Living in a society with choice, preferences, and yes, still taxes, it is almost impossible to imagine a society as described in "The Sumptuary Manifesto". 

No comments:

Post a Comment