1975 Reason magazine article

by that logic, businesses don't earn profits either, they just impose private taxes on citizens.

Nope. Profits they keep.

but those "profits", who controls how much they make? The companies do, by setting their own "private tax" on their products.

just discussing the topic within your chosen Reagan framework.

You don't have to buy the product or service. You do have to pay the tax.

now you're not even consistent with your own argument!

if business just collects taxes, then not buying a product means you don't have to pay the tax, either.

trying to point out that for normal, elastic goods, business cannot raise prices arbitrarily, which means that business can be taxed.

in an inelastic market, yes, business would just pass taxes through.

Business passes the tax onto YOU, they don't take it from their own profits.

adds that most markets are competitive, and as long as the market is profitable, competition will lead to taxes not being passed through.

if business just "collects taxes", then their markets aren't competitive.

if markets aren't competitive, then you should ask why they aren't.

some markets are government-granted monopolies, or have been: utilities are a great example.

for any other business, though, the apparent pass-through of taxes suggests an oligarchy of price manipulation.

points to the cellular phone carriers as a potential oligarchy where Reagan's principle probably is correct.

the right answer, though, is not to avoid taxing of business but to ensure the marketplace is competitive.

realizes that in the above comments he should have used "oligopoly" and not "oligarchy".

So you think when a business in a competitive industry is taxed more, they just eat it?

not because they want to earn less profit, but because others may choose to leave their prices unchanged and increase their share.

when all of the players pass the tax through, that suggests an oligopoly or collusion in the industry.

...but not for long. Certainly competition drives down prices, but not forever.