Cashing In on Sin.(taxation)

Gregoire Chassaing, 25, sped into the southern French city of Montpellier in his mother's stylish PT Cruiser, disregarding the 50-kph speed-limit signs lining the road. After all, the average French driver is pulled over only once every 15 years, and he'd already been stopped just a month earlier. So why not drive 102?

Chassaing's mother received the bill for his joyride just in time for Christmas. Her son had been "flashed" when he passed an automated roadside radar-camera. His ticket hit the mail within 48 hours. "I thought it over and realized how dumb it is to speed," he now acknowledges contritely.

France may still reign as a bastion of worldly pleasures. But all of a sudden, the country's cash-strapped government seems to have discovered the benefits of preaching a little self-restraint. January is the season of tax increases, and this year's hikes attempt to guide behavior using a once maligned exercise in financial dissuasion known as the "sin tax." The third round of aggressive tax hikes on cigarettes enacted last year goes into effect this month, boosting the tax on a 5 euro premium pack by 50 percent. The government is also taking aim at less inherently dangerous targets, like driving, by taxing gasoline and penalizing speeding. Surprisingly, in an overtaxed nation, the results brought about by the new levies are considered by many to be one of the true bright spots for an unpopular government.

Truth be told, France didn't have much choice. President Jacques Chirac campaigned in 2002 on a pledge to reduce government expenditures and income taxes at the same time. (A 3 percent reduction takes effect in mid-January.) Where else to turn but to the purveyors of inconsiderate and potentially dangerous behavior? Smokers have been grousing that nearly 80 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes now goes to the government. But in fact, most of the revenue is being used to help pay an estimated 15 billion euros to care for those with tobacco-related health problems. What's more, the cigarette tax hike in October spurred thousands of smokers to try patches, call smoker hot lines or go cold turkey. A 2.5 percent increase in the gasoline tax is expected to raise 800 million euros to fund public-railway investments.

Few measures, ...