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Follow TURFTolls are taxes, not 'prices'
'Taxes are just prices…' draws sharp response from professor
Posted on Toll Road News / Sat, 2010-12-18
"Reproaching people who complain about taxes, Liane Ellison Norman insists that 'taxes are really just prices”'(Letters, New York Times Dec 17).
"No ma’am. Prices are terms of exchanges voluntarily agreed to by willing buyers and willing sellers. Because prices result from people spending – or not spending! – their own money, they reflect genuine consumer desires and resource scarcities.
"In stark contrast, taxes are forced extractions. Even when spent with the intent of benefiting taxpayers, taxes – unlike prices – are never the result of bargains between buyers and sellers. Taxes, instead, are the result of commands issued by rulers to subjects.
"Buyers who refuse to pay sellers’ asking prices go without the goods. Subjects who refuse to pay the sovereign’s demanded tax go to jail," Donald J. Boudreaux, George Mason University Economics Department.
see http://cafehayek.com/
A line of reasoning worth bearing in mind for the taxes versus tolls debate.