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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  4407 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Legal Pot Is Here, But Stash The Wallet For Now : NPR

    When legalization is fully implemented, prices could fall even further.

I want them to back this up. It should be the opposite.





rozap  ·  4407 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No, it shouldn't. Right now the massive risk associated with growing drives up prices. Once that risk is gone, prices will fall (if it were untaxed). Taxes should then be added to a point where supply/demand reaches an equilibrium and therefore revenue is maximized. And, I would suspect, this will still be less than it is now.

Taxes shouldn't be added willy nilly. They should be carefully calculated to maximize revenue, taking into account the market's response to pricing.

user-inactivated  ·  4406 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's now how equilibrium and taxes work, unfortunately. Taxes by their nature interfere with maximization of producer and consumer revenue, because that's not what the government cares about. With marijuana, an additional effect will come into play because the government will probably stick it with an extremely high "sin tax." This is all speculation at the moment but we'll know more next year.

rozap  ·  4405 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You're right, they do work like that. But they shouldn't, and they don't have to.

If the government wants to maximize its tax revenue, then that makes a lot of sense. What doesn't make a lot of sense is the government telling me what is a sin and what isn't, when my "sinning" only has an effect on me.

user-inactivated  ·  4405 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    What doesn't make a lot of sense is the government telling me what is a sin and what isn't, when my "sinning" only has an effect on me.

This is the extreme libertarian point of view, and of course in many cases is dead wrong. For instance, the phrase sin tax was essentially coined with regard to cigarettes -- and smoking cigarettes in public has been proven multiple times to have massive negative health effects on other people.

This is not to say that the libertarian POV is always wrong, or that smoking a cig always hurts others, but just to point out that libertarians can often be tempted to apply absolutes to situations that don't call for them.

user-inactivated  ·  4407 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Eh? Black markets generate an inflation on goods. And vendors can be completely unscrupulous with customer seeing look course for reconcile.

Those drive prices in dollars and cost in anxiety and fear.

But please explain your position better than, "nu-uh".

thenewgreen  ·  4406 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My guess is that eventually, Marijuana will be something that many people grow in their own gardens and share with pride. Have you seen the Johnsons recent crop of buds? You really must try them, they're simply divine.

user-inactivated  ·  4407 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Taxation and regulation, it seems to me, should drive the prices up in most cases. I didn't really understand your post, I'm sorry.