I'm confused on where the quote on cigarettes comes from? Isn't in my post, is it?
And you didn't address that they did find modest gains to the goals in the Seattle study. I fully agree that, on the merits, this is easy to circumvent. I further agree that this sort of tax is almost certainly regressive. Largely for the reason you give of how easy it can be to get around. The study shows that, despite that, it still saw gains to the goals.
My gut would be some of the gains will have come from advertising around the ideas. Having a tax is one thing. But prices typically go up with people being none the wiser. So, the messaging that went with the taxes could have also given a pause.
That is beside the point, though, being that I don't know why it could have had modest results. Study shows that it did.
And you didn't address that they did find modest gains to the goals in the Seattle study. I fully agree that, on the merits, this is easy to circumvent. I further agree that this sort of tax is almost certainly regressive. Largely for the reason you give of how easy it can be to get around. The study shows that, despite that, it still saw gains to the goals.
My gut would be some of the gains will have come from advertising around the ideas. Having a tax is one thing. But prices typically go up with people being none the wiser. So, the messaging that went with the taxes could have also given a pause.
That is beside the point, though, being that I don't know why it could have had modest results. Study shows that it did.