Tax, black market and smuggling
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tomder55
If you start taxing tobacco to death there will be a black market. We have it here with smuggling from lower taxed states to higher taxed states. If I'm not wrong tobacco running to England(about 20% of the market ) helps fund jihadistan;and smuggling to Ireland helps fund the IRA .
That's why it makes me laugh when people like the dopy Governor of California thinks he can legalize pot and tax it to death to fill the state's kitty while at the same time eliminating the illegal trade.
Clete fails to mention the black market for cheap labor .
Cheap labour, you mean cash in hand, Tom, or exploitation of illegal migrants? I wasn't referring to that as a black market or the results of illegal activities such as drugs. I was referring to a highly organised market in smuggled goods. Like everywhere else we have things that fall off the backs of trucks, but because our tax system is federal it is uniform and doesn't create the imbalances that promote internal smuggling on a large scale. We have very low tariffs on most goods so there isn't much incentive. Legalising pot would create the same market as for tobacco and take the super profits out of the industry, It won't stop people growing it, but it is interesting, you don't see people with tobacco plants in their back yards and stills are a rarity. Governments for a long time have found it profitable to tax commodity markets, Maybe there is good market for poppies to be taxed