Gaining wealth through voluntary exchange is a virtue; accumulating...

January 13, 2025 at 2:37 PM  ·  Comment — Ben Feral Selinger's post  ·  View on Facebook  ·  Markdown source

Gaining wealth through voluntary exchange is a virtue; accumulating wealth via rentseeking is a vice. To the extent that we have taxes, they should be user fees (tolls, radio licenses, etc), excise taxes on natural resources (water, oil, etc), pigouvian taxes (on pollution, congestion), or land value taxes (exclusive use of land). So the more you use resources (oil, water, land), and the more negative externalities (pollution, congestion) you create, the more I think you should pay.