The means that governments use to provide revenues for whatever purposes they have, whether good or not (You're entitled to your opinion, as am I) include in addition to routine taxation and fees the assessing of fines for minor misconduct like speeding or illegal parking and the so-called "sin" taxes such as those on alcohol, tobacco, and gambling.
These may produce a sizeable cash flow; especially in specialized cases such as communities that primarily depend on speed trap or casino revenue.
But these are also behaviors that the governing body at least obstensibly is attempting to discourage by making it costly.
Here's whether the problem comes in with "sin" taxes: if they are too small, they do not serve as a proper deterrent. But if they are sizeable, they suppress the undesired conduct effectively and the governing body achieves a corresponding loss of revenue! And if they seek some happy medium, the governing body is behaving hypocritically.
To my way of thinking, the strongest justification for giving up beer is to screw the state and the feds out of the tax money!
But, I'm okay about fines and "sin" taxes if they're entirely up front and admit that they're doing it for the money. Then they merit the same respect as call girls.
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