[foerbert]

That's not a workable position. By that measure a new industry that blows up significant fractions of major population centers for pennies - but pays taxes on those pennies - is a net producer of new tax revenue and should be considered a net benefit.

Yes, obviously, in this highly contrived example there are many other non-tax laws and reasons this company could never exist. But I think it still demonstrates the point that a new industry that produces new taxes is not inherently a good thing even if you limit the scope to simply government revenue.

I don't believe there is a perfect view of these things, but at least taking the tack I originally expressed is more workable than this.

[s1artibartfast]

>new industry that produces new taxes is not inherently a good thing.

I think you are making different point than in the last post. I never suggested this. I agree that new companies can theoretically cause externalities that cost the government more than their taxes.

My point is that in this case SpaceX taxes are not pre-allocated to cover government costs incurred by SpaceX. SpaceX isn't increasing the number of people on welfare, teachers, defense budget, ect. In fact, SpaceX existing saves the government huge amounts of money on launch costs.

[foerbert]

Maybe I worded my original post poorly then, as that was the idea I was trying to convey.

And you're right. As I said, I don't think there is a perfect way to view these things. However I do think that viewing those taxes as pre-allocated is a reasonable easy heuristic. Otherwise every single externality has to be rather thoroughly investigated. Is it already known and accounted for? If it is not accounted for, is it intentionally not accounted for or is the externality actually entirely unforeseen? How much does the externality actually cost? How much additional revenue does the company/industry causing this externality bring in and how does it compare, etc etc etc.

Not viewing those taxes as pre-allocated to existing programs essentially leads to immediately discounting any new externality because of the sheer complexity of trying to figure out the exact dollar amounts involved. Many externalities do not even have an objective dollar cost from which to start the accounting.

Even if you wish to continue with SpaceX, how do we account for them properly? They may be saving the government money on launch costs, but they are also deriving an unusually high benefit from our public education system. I'd assume they are also putting more wear on our road system than many companies. And that's not even scratching the surface. And SpaceX isn't even the whole industry.

Much, much easier to view taxes as essentially pre-allocated first and then figure out how you want to deal with things more specifically later. At least it gives us a tractable starting point.