> I wonder what the effect would be of a mixed strategy where only the relatively safer and lower-concentration forms of a drug are legal?
The interesting solution is very high taxes, with the tax based on the amount of the substance. Then higher concentrations have higher taxes.
The optimal tax amount is just below the amount that would cause the tax-evading black market to be larger than the legal market. And then prosecuting for tax evasion doesn't cost the other taxpayers anything because every prosecution pays for itself through the back taxes and penalties, without having to put anybody in prison.
We already put people into feedback loops of administrative fines, and jail. You really think this would play out differently? Without incarceration, how exactly do you propose to collect your money? Once you figure that out, be sure to tell all of the parents looking to collect from deadbeats your secret, they need it!
The government doesn't need your cooperation to collect a tax debt. If you owe them and you have any money or assets they just seize them, and if you don't have any money they have your employer garnish your wages until you've paid it off. The IRS does not screw around.
And the point is to deter people from evading taxes. If they're permanently bankrupt you can't collect anything from them, but they also end up on probation which means the government can search their place and finances without a warrant. If they're stupid enough to violate their probation by committing tax evasion again, even though it's now much easier for the government to catch them, now they can go to jail.
The government doesn't need your cooperation to collect a tax debt.
It does if they want to actually make a profit on collecting taxes. Those "bleed the beast" pricks, extreme LDS sects, etc... all seem to have little trouble withholding taxes. Could the government step up enforcement? Sure... but it costs money.
> Those "bleed the beast" pricks, extreme LDS sects, etc... all seem to have little trouble withholding taxes.
Those people live in isolation without corporate employment, use of financial institutions or the ability to hold title to a vehicle. Hardly "little trouble".
Alcohol and tobacco are heavily taxed many countries, with pretty low levels of incarceration for smuggling them. It doesn't seem to be much of a problem in practice. Also programs of decriminalisation of regulated drugs provision in several countries have been very successful. At this point, there's an awful lot of actual real world evidence that it really does play out differently.
The interesting solution is very high taxes, with the tax based on the amount of the substance. Then higher concentrations have higher taxes.
The optimal tax amount is just below the amount that would cause the tax-evading black market to be larger than the legal market. And then prosecuting for tax evasion doesn't cost the other taxpayers anything because every prosecution pays for itself through the back taxes and penalties, without having to put anybody in prison.