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Oh, it was very effective. We don't see too many smokers anymore. We don't smell them either, or see them huddled in doorways. We don't see cigarettes butts littering public sidewalks and roadways. Thousands of tobacco farms have closed down in Kentucky alone.
Government loves the power it has over us.
How are the big tobacco companies still having huge profits every year then? None of them are even close to being bankrupt, their stock is still performing great too..?
How are the big tobacco companies still having huge profits every year then? None of them are even close to being bankrupt, their stock is still performing great too..?
Thousands of American farmers have stopped growing tobacco, but many haven't. There is still much profit to be made by selling tobacco and cigarettes overseas. Only in America, where the taxes are outrageously high, has tobacco use greatly declined. It's a global market for tobacco products.
Government isn't taxing cigarettes to end smoking. Government is taxing cigarettes to increase tax revenue. Sin taxes are easy taxes to impose and raise. No one really objects and whatever the "sin" is, the people with that vice are going to keep on doing it.
I don't have a lot of objection to sin taxes. After all, they are completely voluntary. You don't have to pay sin tax if you decide you don't want to pay it.
Not true with most other taxes. They are a lot harder to avoid.
Smokers have been so self-centered and obnoxious for so many multiple decades that they have long ago lost any public support of any kind. So they have brought the high taxes down on their own heads, with no one to speak out to defend them.
Government isn't taxing cigarettes to end smoking. Government is taxing cigarettes to increase tax revenue. Sin taxes are easy taxes to impose and raise. No one really objects and whatever the "sin" is, the people with that vice are going to keep on doing it.
I don't have a lot of objection to sin taxes. After all, they are completely voluntary. You don't have to pay sin tax if you decide you don't want to pay it.
Not true with most other taxes. They are a lot harder to avoid.
Smokers have been so self-centered and obnoxious for so many multiple decades that they have long ago lost any public support of any kind. So they have brought the high taxes down on their own heads, with no one to speak out to defend them.
Really? Other taxes are harder to avoid? No they're not. And let's be clear, we're talking about sales taxes here, not income or property taxes.
That said, a tax imposed on ANY product purchased is easy to avoid by simply not purchasing it. Of course, those might be some things that you like.
And there's the rub: "sin taxes" are simply draconian taxes imposed upon products determined by the sanctimonious to be vices. All consumption taxes could be avoided by refusing to buy...anything.
No legal poduct shoud have "the hell taxed out of it." But then, that's the difference between conservatives and...oh, never mind.
Government isn't taxing cigarettes to end smoking. Government is taxing cigarettes to increase tax revenue. Sin taxes are easy taxes to impose and raise. No one really objects and whatever the "sin" is, the people with that vice are going to keep on doing it.
I don't have a lot of objection to sin taxes. After all, they are completely voluntary. You don't have to pay sin tax if you decide you don't want to pay it.
Not true with most other taxes. They are a lot harder to avoid.
Smokers have been so self-centered and obnoxious for so many multiple decades that they have long ago lost any public support of any kind. So they have brought the high taxes down on their own heads, with no one to speak out to defend them.
Aren’t “sins” a violation of a religious code? Wouldn’t taxes on those be a violation of separation of church and state?
Taxing something to discourage use and increase revenue at the same time is counterproductive. When the revenue drops after they’ve been successful, they move on to tax something else. If Chicago hadn’t taxed smokes to oblivion, maybe they wouldn’t have felt the need to tax sugary drinks. Once the revenue they’ve grown to depend on dries up, what’s next? Bacon tax?
Aren’t “sins” a violation of a religious code? Wouldn’t taxes on those be a violation of separation of church and state?
Taxing something to discourage use and increase revenue at the same time is counterproductive. When the revenue drops after they’ve been successful, they move on to tax something else. If Chicago hadn’t taxed smokes to oblivion, maybe they wouldn’t have felt the need to tax sugary drinks. Once the revenue they’ve grown to depend on dries up, what’s next? Bacon tax?
Sin tax is just a colloquial term. It has nothing to do with the legislative terminology used in the actual laws.
I don't smoke, and I'm in London, U.K., but I asked around, and it seems to be about £4.00 ($5.18) per pack.
Though I was also told of recent Government advice, (possibly scare tactics), which said that illegally smuggled cigarettes from China and Eastern Europe, some being counterfeit, contained higher concentrations of arsenic, also rat droppings, possibly human excrement, 160% higher tar levels, 133% higher Carbon Monoxide, 6 times the amount of lead, 80% nicotine, and 5 times the amount of cadmium, boy, I'm glad that I don't have to think about that!
I feel bad for the poor people, they are going to buy those toxic bootlegged cigs because they can't afford 13 dollars a pack, while the middle class/rich will either suck it up and buy it at 13.00 a pack, or go across the border and stack up. NYC residents health and health care costs will increase because of this (Secondhand bootlegged cig smoke).
It's just ridiculous that smoking is still legal. Ridiculous. There is absolutely no benefit to society by allowing idiots to increase the healthcare costs of those around them.
If we're going to keep smoking legal, all smokers should be placed in an entirely separate health insurance pool that only contains smokers. They can pay for each others' sins. No reason I should be footing the bill for their lung cancer. This doesn't even solve the problem of the damage they are doing to innocent bystanders via their secondhand smoke.
Just such a stupid, stupid habit. It wastes money for the user, costs more for society, yet big tobacco is still allowed to retain profits. Every dime of profit in cigarette sales should be plugged right back into our healthcare system. And this is coming from an otherwise devout conservative.
Ridiculous.
I am assuming you are against drinking to then, as there is no benefit to society as well? Just leads to liver problems, drunk driving, etc...
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