[wisty]

A tax isn't really central planning (except in a very blunt way, which governments aren't horrible at doing). It's when governments get into the nitty-gritty (put wind turbines on buildings, because it looks good, despite any turbine with blades smaller than a jumbo jet is inefficient due to the quadratic relationship between blade length and power) that they screw up.

Do you have a bigger problem with central planning, or with taxes? Because taxes aren't going away any time soon, and at least "sin taxes" can reduce bad behavior (while not discouraging hard work and investment). And industry standards are arguably a form of central planning.

[vy8vWJlco]

I have a bigger problem with taxes. Central planning is fine IMHO assuming everyone involved is onboard - otherwise the ship should stay in the dock to the degree people still want off. For what it's worth, I am fond of industry standards when they are documentary in nature and not prescriptive (the difference between designing something to be perfect and picking a winning technology to distill).