Should we just start taxing workaholics?

As marketers know all too well, there’s a long history of taxing certain vices in the hope of reducing consumers’ indulgence in them. Thus do we have special taxes on alcoholic beverages and tobacco, to take two obvious examples. And it wouldn’t be wildly surprising if do-gooders succeed in having “sin taxes” slapped on such public menaces as fast food and soft drinks. A less predictable proposal comes from economics/public-policy professor Joel Slemrod of the University of Michigan and colleague Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas.