Brilliant or foolish....you decide!
Happy Halloween!
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About Me
- Stacy
- International educator interested in the intersection of curriculum, professional development,technology integration and how they all fit together.
10 comments:
Personally, I don't completely agree with the pumkin tax. True, pumpkins are primarily used for decoration, but only for one day during the whole year, namely at Halloween. Unless I´m mistaken, I'm pretty sure that for the rest of the year people actually plan to eat the pumpkins, and not just randomly make pumpkin faces for decoration the whole time. I believe that this tax could greatly hurt pumpkin producers who depend on the consumption of pumpkins not as decoration, but as food. If the price of pumpkins goes up, consumer's will readily switch to another vegetable. However, I do see this making sense at Halloween, since I suppose it's a well-established tradition to use pumpkins as decoration. Nevertheless, this tax would not be very beneficial
I totally agree with Luisa. It isn't fair to the pumpkin growers if the pumpkins are taxed just because pumpkins are used for decorations which only happens once a year. Like what we learnt, government interference mess up the natural demand and supply in a market. Therefore, the govt. should leave this pumpkin industry as it is.
Makes sense for them to tax them. No one actually does eat pumpkins really...why make a pumpkin pie when you can buy it right? Also you have to get a pumpkin on halloween so its an inelastic good also its a once a year thing so noone would feel a 5% increase would make it not worth it. I also see why they changed their minds though, taxing a good just because its a decoration seems very money hungry and selfish.
I dont agree with michael...what do you mean noone really eats pumpkins??? I EAT PUMPKINS IN MY HOUSE! :D haha..
well seriusly, a pumpkin is just like any other vegetable eaten by people like carrots or lettuce...it´s like any other food served in a household´s dinner! its reallly really not fair if they tax it just because its part of a tradition to decorate pumpkins in a certain time of the year..another thing: many people eat pumpkins, but not EVERYBODY decorates them during halloween!..well i dont know, maybe in the states..
I guess for the government it is beneficial for them if they tax pumpkins during halloween...but ONLY during halloween!
The pumpkin tax was one that was genius and stupid at the same time.
First off, the government imposed the tax on pumpkins because they're relatively inelastic: 1) they are a low percentage of one´s income and 2) they have no real substitutes for decorations This thinking justifies the imposition of the tax; the government would be making money, while producers and consumers would not be harmed as much.
This brings up the stupid part. While the cost to an individual of the tax would be relatively small, the overall deadweight loss as a result would be large. Just think about how many pumpkins are bought each year to be used for Halloween decorations. With the tax in place, a little bit of deadweight loss would exist for each pumpkin sold, and while small for each individual pumpkin, when you add up what I'm sure are millions of pumpkins, thats an extremely large deadweight loss.
I agree both with Luisa and Michael. In Argentina, I eat pumpkin because here, it's seen as a form of squash. When I lived in the states, the only time I remember buying pumpkins was for Halloween, and even then we only ate the seeds. It does make sense to tax pumpkins, and I can understand that point of view, but I don't think it should happen. When pumpkins are taxed, it will hurt the producers, even though it is just another vegetable. Yes, they are primarily used during Halloween for jack-o-lanterns but if pumpkins are taxed, those people who do eat them will switch to squash, something very similar, but that is not taxed. I don't think it is fair to the farmers for pumpkins to be taxed but other squashes not to be taxed.
If in infact in the states, pumpkins are only bought during the halloween season then the taxing does make sense because it is an inelastic product that people will buy anyway.
However, if the case is that pumpkins are sold equally throughout the year at high demand then the tax is just a stupid way to hurt producers.
I belive the tax is fair, because pumpkins are inelastic goods mainly used as decoration durring halloween.
Now yes, there are a few people that do eat punkins through out the year, but this minority probably wont care much about 5% increase in the cost, because i belive people that eat pumpkins dont eat it because of the price, but because of their taste for it.
Its good and bad-- for the producer, its pretty bad. For the consumer, it doesn't matter so much because the price of pumpkins is relatively inelastic. A 5% increase in price won't persuade someone to make a squash pie instead of a pumpkin pie. But this does hurt farmers who make fewer profits-- but how much are tey actually hurt? I mean, the US subsidizes farmers so much already...
So I agree with Luisa, that in October they could be taxed. That shouldn't be so hard to implement, should it??
I think the tax is a good idea beacause pumpkins are an inelastic product but the deadweight loss of the tax would probably be greater than the profit the pumpkin growers are earning. the govt should just not tax pumpkins and let people have fun with decorating for halloween.
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