Things that are enjoyable are often also likely to be status symbols:

https://stefanfschubert.com/blog/2022/4/6/status-as-a-multiplier-on-intrinsic-enjoyment

In my experience far from always true: the status seems to persist much longer than the enjoyment - but still, it's an interesting argument for...

... why high sales taxes are likely to be an actually not-that-inefficient form of taxation. I can't find it anymore but I saw a result once suggesting that, taking status effects into account, the optimal sales tax might be around 40%.

The problem with sales taxes — no matter how theoretically efficient — is that they land in the coffers of inefficient spenders (bureaucrats)

building /bracket | hosting /greatbooks + /gray | ex-BCG, ex-PHD | poli + phil + econ

I think they were deducing optimality purely from an incentives point of view, so assuming that the money is given back to the taxpayers via magic UBI or something. But not sure, unfortunately I can't find the relevant paper anymore :(

Yes but I was pushing back on the specific point of the study which concluded that a 40% sales tax rate could be “optimal”

Such a large number would only be “optimal” if assuming that a very large Gov budget is an objective?

I’m challenging that assumption bc of core principal-agent problem in Gov spending