Governments frequently use tax policy to discourage consumption of certain goods, but these policies are regressive. Taxes on energy, alcohol and tobacco disproportionately affect low-income earners. A study from the National Center for Policy Analysis, in Dallas, shows that people who earn $24,000 a year spend proportionately more than twice as much on gasoline as those who earn $120,000. The researchers also found that the bottom fifth of earners who buy alcohol spend three times as much proportionately on alcohol than do the highest earners. Canadian low-income earners, facing even more onerous gasoline and alcohol taxes, are worse off.

Unfair barriers include occupational licensing and regulation, which limit entry into a profession or job area. Unions influence rules around apprenticing to limit the number of jobs "open" in the skilled building trades. Business interests use regulations to cartel-ize the taxi industry, effectively blocking entrance into an activity ideally suited to small-business entrepreneurs. The price of a taxi shield is about $225,000 in Winnipeg and rising. How many poor people can pay that? In addition, lower income people without cars pay disproportionately more for artificially high taxi fares.