60 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 5 Apr \ parent \ on: The economics of American lotteries econ
Everything hinges on this idea of voluntary.
Taxes are compulsory therefore anything we do voluntarily is not a tax.
It is voluntary to buy a lotto ticket.
It is not voluntary to pay a tax on alcohol.
I don't see the difference between a state saying only we offer lotteries and a state saying you must pay tax on alcohol.
The only way I can avoid paying the tax on alcohol by not buying it.
The only way I can avoid the tax on lotto tickets buy not buying them.
I don't need either to survive.
Yet surely you would say sales tax on alcohol is a tax. So why not the lottery?
a state saying only we offer lotteries
If we're thinking of taxation as theft, then this should be clear. Prohibiting people from making voluntary transactions under threat of violence is a different type of crime than theft.
By the way, though, I do think it's not as bad to tax luxury/vice items like alcohol. To me the more avoidable a tax is the less evil it is.
The more we go back and forth on this, though, the less I want to be defending the position I initially staked out. Even if the lottery isn't exactly a tax, the state has no right to be conducting a lottery and is only able to do so because it's violently suppressing competition.
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