“Skin” is the New “Sin”

I can’t remember a free meal I didn’t enjoy. Sure, at some the food could have been better or the company different, but I’ve always been happy to eat for free. In the same way, I’ve never met a tax I didn’t have to pay that I didn’t like. As long as the sales tax targets something I don’t generally buy, especially if it’s a product I’m not particularly fond of, it sounds good – at first.

Amidst the recent budget shortfalls, some law makers have turned to adult services. No, not to de-stress, but to tax. A number of states and even the federal government have at least considered a possible tax on explicit movies, literature, and other products, much the same way that there are specific taxes on alcohol and tobacco, also known as “sin” taxes.

The “skin taxes” as they are called will have no negative effect on my finances, and should they be passed, survive constitutional challenges, and generate revenue, they might actually lessen my tax burden by making others pay more. However, I’m still uncomfortable with the motivation behind these new taxes. The legislators aren’t moral warriors attempting to use any means necessary to rid their districts of what immorality, they just want to raise funds in a way that offends the least number of people. However, flinging morality around as an insincere excuse for raising revenues doesn’t sit well with me.

Right now, I’m not being targeted. Nobody’s threatening to tack on a twenty percent tax on peanut butter and jelly, spaghetti, yogurt , or – heaven forbid – camera equipment. I guess those must be common enough that representatives don’t think they can just slap a tax on it and not feel repercussions at the ballot box. But what happens when some senator decides religious books are “immoral” for misleading people? Or instead of the “pole tax” that Texas has instituted to force strip clubs to have a five dollar cover, what if politicians decide that people are going to attend church no matter what so they should levy a five dollar cover charge to get in? Perhaps that example is just a bit drastic, but what about charging a cover on trips to the camera store, car dealership, or supermarket?

Certainly there are some times when legal means can be used by sincere individuals to achieve moralistic ends, such as using zoning laws to prevent strip clubs or adult stores from taking root in a new community, but as long as taxes are seen as a valid means for behavior control rather than purely as a revenue generator, I certainly don’t mind “skin taxes,” as well as taxes on tobacco, alcohol, anchovies, women’s clothing, and almost any other item I don’t have to purchase. However, unless I am chosen as dictator – or at least total given control of what gets taxed so I can make sure someone doesn’t tax items that I use – taxes should be a method for raising money and nothing more.