Sales tax, or any tax based on the price of product:
1. Increases, and Compounds inflation (adds to the price of goods).
2. Causes Frustration (particularly if not uniform, and therefore not easily calculated).
3. Kills Jobs, by effectively reducing the spending power of poor people (thus reducing sales).
4. Is regressive (poor and middle class pay a larger share of their income than rich people).


Taxes not based on price, but solely on units sold (like fuel taxes assessed per unit sold)
do no cause all these issues (if they are assessed to encourage reduced consumption), and do not compound inflation.

The Minnesota Alcohol tax is a 3% additional sales tax on beverages containing ethanol.
Instead - it should be a unit tax on the volume of alcohol in those products - and should be applied BEFORE
the listed price (to make beverages with more alcohol, more expensive - on the shelf,
and encourage the purchase of lower alcohol beverages).