Seriously? These exist other than for dogs?
Well, let’s examine the classics:
[ul]
[li]pride–you could charge for those “My kid was an honor student” bumper stickers[/li][li]greed–more luxury taxes (ironic, that…)[/li][li]envy–higher taxes on wannabe products–off brands, “Onega” watches, etc. Also, put “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” on pay-per-view…[/li][li]anger–higher fines for hate crimes and crimes of violence[/li][li]lust–the aforementioned prostitution tax, once we legalize it[/li][li]gluttony–higher taxes on junk food[/li]sloth–people who don’t exercise are already paying this–higher insurance rates[/ul]
Getting really cynical, you can apply a sin tax to anything the majority finds distasteful (in a moral sense or otherwise) and is not practiced by a rich or elite minority. The problem with taxing plastic surgery is that it’s not something pursued by low-income/low-influence groups, which are more easily exploited.
Many populations would not be ready to legitimize prostitution by applying a sin tax to it. However, if you’ve got a region with morally conservative types and can produce data showing increased crime around strip clubs/porno theatres/porno video stores, you might be able to get away with sin taxing those establishments. Reasoning would be along the lines of “revenue going into fighting crime in those areas and setting up awareness programs to help young people make better choices”. Obviously, the argument is shaky when you think about it, but governments bank on people not really thinking about it.
Sin taxing fast food would be tough, because it doesn’t specifically “target” overweight people. You’d need to be more creative to isolate that group, but they’re definitely ostracized enough to be a candidate (especially if you could “show” that overweight people are a burden on society/healthcare).
I don’t know how things are set up in the US, but governments can easily corner the sin market by permitting only state-run casinos and liquor stores, under the “socially sensitive industries should be socially accountable” premise.
You know, it occurs to me that a parallel between organized crime and government can be made here. The government already “runs numbers” via lotteries. They are slowly making sure they get their cut on all the other “sinful” activities.
So, maybe we could look to organized crime to get our hints. Gun running - I can see the government putting super high taxes on guns. Certainly someone is bound to get this idea someday and realize it is a true money maker.
The food idea I think would be out. There are too many people that would be upset if so-called luxury food was taxed. However, many states have no sales tax on food. I could see them repealing the no sales tax rule for certain foods, which would in effect be a new tax.
If prostitution were taxed, it certainly would make chartered accountancy a much more interesting job.
How about a “lap dance tax”? (Say that 10 times real fast.) Leaving aside the auditing problem of taxing the income of cash-basis dancers, the state can tax the strip-club on the admission fee that people pay at the door and can make the dancers pay a hefty fee for annual licenses. I’d like to be at the tax office when the girls come in to pay their annual fees in single dollar bills.
Oh, it’s already fun to charter an accountant… and sail the wide accountan-cy… to find, explore, the funds upshore, and skirt the shoals of bankruptcy…
Paraphrased from Bowling for Columbine:
What we need isn’t a gun tax. Guns don’t kill people, bullets do. I think we just need to make bullets cost about $5000, that way nobody would ever kill anyone unless they really REALLY wanted to. I can hear it now: “Man, I would just fill your skull full of lead, if only I could afford it!”
Except then no one would be able to afford to practice, so there would be random bullets flying all over the place if there was a shootout. 
Irony would dictate that we start charging people to use the “Free Speech Zones” at political events.
It’s not? Well whew. At least I’m one level higher in th rings of hell.
That’s an old Chris Rock bit. Are you sure it was on BFC? (I don’t remember)
Yup, they used the Chris Rock clip in BFC somewhere in the first 20 minutes or so…
A “speed tax”
It would work like this: Consider my state (SC) as an example. At the state line on I-95 there would be a special booth set up where a speed pass could be purchased. This pass would authorize you to go as fast as you like and shield you from getting cited for speeding. There could even be progressive levels e.g. $80.00 would allow you to travel up to 85 MPH, $160.00 up to 110 MPH etc. If caught speeding without a pass the fine could be equal to some multiple of the fee.
I don’t think they would ever do that. That would be legitimizing a dangerous activity - something dangerous to others moreover. People would freak.
Why not tax cars that get poor gas mileage?
They’re kinda doing that already with the taxes on gasoline. But I see your point and it’s a good one.
In some states (I’m pretty sure NJ is one of them), the fee on your registration increases for the size of your vehicle. It is my understanding it is a sort-of fee for how much your car will be ripping up the road compared to others. However, they don’t do that in all states. So that could be a nice, new tax, for some anyway.
Some folk might not agree on what is or is not a sin to tax, but the idea seems to tax some sort of services or goods that led to indolent or superfluous activity, and I’d like to purpose a tax on the Idiot Box.
Tax all televisions in the United States, say $75 to $100 per year, and perhaps make it progressive so wall sized units cost more. I don’t know how many TVs are in the country, but I’m sure it could be worth $6 to 10 Billion per year, maybe more.
It would be a mighty deep source of tax revenue if the Government could pass it through legislation and enforce collection.
In addition to the TV tax, tax all movie tickets and DVD/VCR rentals at a $1 per pop.
No tax proposed in this thread so far would even comes close to the potential revenue of a TV and movie ticket tax.
I agree. And that’s why I think a marijuana tax is more likely. It’s a potentially bigger moneymaker (if for no other reason that marijuana can grow faster than prostitutes) and it affects a small subset, none of whom are in power.
While there are no such things as state-run casinos in the US (yet), some states do have state-run liquor stores. Virginia, for example, restricts who can sell hard liquor to their Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, who usually has one or two stores in every city.
Pyrrhonist: While your idea has merit, it’ll never fly. Big Media would scream, and so would the consumers (prodded by Big Media, of course). Besides, it would stifle the media market somewhat, forcing networks to commercialize even more and produce crappier programming. Personally, however, I’d pay a TV tax if I got something like the BBC out of it.
PCow said
My point is that many many folks commit the “sin” of flying down the interstate well in excess of the legal speed limit. Some revenue is already generated from speeding citations. Why not make more by treating the highway as a pay as you go autobahn?