Raise Cigarette Taxes — and Skip the Ugly Photos

Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration presented nine gruesome pictures that will soon cover the top half of cigarette packages. One image shows diseased lungs and teeth; another shows a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his neck. These pictures make smoking less pleasant, just as higher cigarette taxes do. But while the latter generates useful public revenue, these images are essentially revenue-less taxes. We can tax behavior in lots of ways — with social stigma or painful pictures — but most of the time, the best taxes involve dollars and cents.