Should we impose sin taxes on recreational items like TV's, iPhones, laptops, etc?
Anti-smoking advocates want to tax cigarettes for their costs to society. Okay. How about all these items? They're often mass-produced using a lot of petroleum-based chemicals and plastics, they are designed to break easily and be obsolete quickly, they use a lot of resources, they lower workplace productivity, and so on.
Rampant consumerism is doing way more damage to society as a whole than tobacco is. Should we impose a sin tax on this dangerous behavior?