New Word for State Government: "Duh!"

I have a new word that I would like to introduce to my fellow state employees:  "Duh!"

It is, believe it or not, typically a term of derision.  It is a shortened form of the phrase, "No shit, dumbass."  It could also be used in place "Who told you first Dick Tracey?"

So when I read this typical "man bites dog" article in the O'Guvnah Bootlicker Herald, I said to myself "Duh!"  And myself said back, "No shit, dumbass."

Basic rule:  raising the price on any product beyond what the market will bear will result in the creation of a black market for that product.  A tax increase is nothing more than a mandatory price increase.  When oil companies raise the price of gas, we call it price gouging.  When the government raises taxes, we call it "fiscally responsible".  Well, O'Guvnah call its fiscally responsible.  I call it demonstrably stupid.

If you want a good example, look at the whole issue over music download and file sharing.  The market was NOT willing to continue to bear high prices for crappy CDs that featured (maybe) one good song  and ten really crappy pieces of trash.  So when the technology came along to make sharing easy and fast, a black market developed.  When the music companies started employing Digital Right Management softwre, the black market got more sophisticated, and defeated it.  To the point now, that you can buy most music for a low price of $99/track -- without DRM.  In this case, the black market exerted such pressure that there are no reputable Digital Rights Managed services still working.

The same is true with cigarettes.  The state raised the tax to $2/pack, and so a black market has developed-- whether it is someone going to Virginia or Pennsylvania to get entire cartons, or citizens deciding to break the law and buy more than the two "un taxed" packs. 

Anyone remember the Falstead Act?

Ironically, the ONLY reason that I still buy my cigars in Maryland is because Jim and Finnie do such a great job at THE HUMIDOUR in Cockeysville that I have not found a smoke shop to top it in Pennsylvania.  But then, the taxes on cigars are no where near as ridiculous on cigarettes.

Of course, one must wonder why the state is so concerned. Their own numbers show that tax receipts are still up 27% in fiscal 2008, despite declining sales.  One wonders if our great and mighty "economic geniuses" in Sodom on the Severn are spending more money try to enforce the anti-smuggling laws than they are actually collecting in increased revenues.  We'll probably never know the answer to that, because O'Guvnah has decided that in most cases, citizens are not entitled to the facts about what the government is actually doing.

But here is something that article writers Laura Smitherman and Liz Atwood didn't dive into in great detail:  what is the impact on convenience stores in terms of overall retail sales.  This topic was covered by me in this post back in March, based on an article in the Baltimore Business Journal.  It seems like the O'Guvnah Bootlicker Herald is about five months behind the curve on this issue. Not surprising, given that the OBH is dumping its business page.

The ultimate question will come down to what cigarette tax receipts look like for fiscal 2009, which we will definitely know well before the 2010 election. I cannot wait.  Until then, hail to the black market, dumbass.