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It means more people will quit smoking and fewer young adults will pick it up due to un-affordability. That stated, will tax-free Indian Reservation sold cigarettes become more popular? - Of course they will. I just don't care - smoking is a bad habit in more ways than one. I wish the Government wouldn't get involved in forcing people to make lifestyle changes but in this situation I hardly feel bad about it.
I wish the Government wouldn't get involved in forcing people to make lifestyle changes but in this situation I hardly feel bad about it.
Well therein lies the rub: folks cherry picking what issues Big Brother choosing what "vices" to strangle though regulation and/or taxation. So you don't care about them doing that to smoking because you aren't a smoker. Ok fine. What happens when they DO go after something that you do care about? Such as red meat. Or chocolate bars. Or beer. Or condoms. Or video game consoles/accessories. Or reclining sofas.
An argument can be made for all of those and how they are directly or indirectly contributing to the moral/physical decay of society and therefore must be taxed or regulated in an effort to dissuade people from engaging in those behaviors. Few want to get to the real root of the problem: namely a government that has no freaking clue on how to manage the publics money. But then again. It's always easier to spend other peoples money and dictate to them how to live their lives, right? Low hanging fruit bro.
Well therein lies the rub: folks cherry picking what issues Big Brother choosing what "vices" to strangle though regulation and/or taxation. So you don't care about them doing that to smoking because you aren't a smoker. Ok fine. What happens when they DO go after something that you do care about? Such as red meat. Or chocolate bars. Or beer. Or condoms. Or video game consoles/accessories. Or reclining sofas.
An argument can be made for all of those and how they are directly or indirectly contributing to the moral/physical decay of society and therefore must be taxed or regulated in an effort to dissuade people from engaging in those behaviors. Few want to get to the real root of the problem: namely a government that has no freaking clue on how to manage the publics money. But then again. It's always easier to spend other peoples money and dictate to them how to live their lives, right? Low hanging fruit bro.
Although arguments can indeed be made that red meat, chocolate, beer, or condoms etc all contribute to the moral or physical decay of society, those arguments are much more sophisticated than that which we're discussing here - namely that cigarettes are bad and taxing them has a lot of benefits. They are 1) addictive and they 2) physically and directly hurt the consumer AND 3) they hurt those around the consumer who is smoking. When we describe the physical "hurt" of cigarettes we're not talking about minor or negligible stuff either. It's not like you can smoke a pack a day and simply work out heavily to counteract the damage your doing to yourself (and it's not like if you do work out that it helps those bystanders around you who get the secondhand smoke). So let's not resort to juvenile arguments about how Government should or should not be involved in everything to do with our lives. The truth is that life is complicated, and so is governing large populations of people. Taxing cigarettes from my vantage point is a good thing because it is a real deterrent for both the consumers and those who think about going into the cigarette manufacturing business. It also helps raise revenue for the Government as well. Lastly, taxing cigarettes and regulating smoking in general means I get to breathe healthier air which makes me happy.
We've had people from NY, NJ, and WA ask us to purchase cigs for them here in Atlanta (about $3-4 per pack) and mail them, LOL. Could mean more profits and tax revenue for us here :-D
The whole "smoking is bad for you" and "just don't smoke" arguments are pretty much beside the point here. The crux of the matter is quite simply, smokers make an easy target (try cutting SS bennies to seniors that vote for example) because they are a sort of captive audience. Think the way Burger King charges $5 for the same Whopper burger sandwich at the airport versus $2 at the one on the street five miles away. It's human nature to go after the proverbial low hanging fruit and that's what the Gov'ment is going after. The same way they are with speeding tickets, which have nothing to do with "safety" or "just slowing down", but rather, it is a way to raise quick cash with minimal effort.
The problem with this is....if they get too greedy....and they actually get what they ask for, namely people giving up smoking (or slowing down), then they will end up creating more problems than they solve because some smokers will quit and the rest will turn to the Black Market. So the extra revenues they thought they were raising instead does the exact opposite and dries up.
This is the slippery slope unthinking people travel time and time again...........
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Although arguments can indeed be made that red meat, chocolate, beer, or condoms etc all contribute to the moral or physical decay of society, those arguments are much more sophisticated than that which we're discussing here - namely that cigarettes are bad and taxing them has a lot of benefits. They are 1) addictive and they 2) physically and directly hurt the consumer AND 3) they hurt those around the consumer who is smoking. When we describe the physical "hurt" of cigarettes we're not talking about minor or negligible stuff either. It's not like you can smoke a pack a day and simply work out heavily to counteract the damage your doing to yourself (and it's not like if you do work out that it helps those bystanders around you who get the secondhand smoke). So let's not resort to juvenile arguments about how Government should or should not be involved in everything to do with our lives. The truth is that life is complicated, and so is governing large populations of people. Taxing cigarettes from my vantage point is a good thing because it is a real deterrent for both the consumers and those who think about going into the cigarette manufacturing business. It also helps raise revenue for the Government as well. Lastly, taxing cigarettes and regulating smoking in general means I get to breathe healthier air which makes me happy.
Cleaner air? In car-choked America? Naive much? In which case, we need to tax the hell out of cars so that I can have clean air. Meat, too, because it contributes to global warming.
You've proven his point. It makes YOU happy. You don't need to raise prices to get people to not smoke in public. Just put signs up that say "No Smoking." They've done it in a few places already and it seems to be working. Only let people smoke in their homes, bars, and cars.
I read a news story stating that people in NY would be paying about $11 per pack of cigarettes because of all the taxes. Now, I don't smoke, but I do drink coffee and would have a tough time quiting--unless I couldn't afford to purchase coffee. I've heard that cigarettes and coffee are similar because they give a sense of calm or overall vitality. Assuming that nicotine and caffeine are similar, by how much would my bag of Starbucks coffee increase? I pay about $7.99 and the bag lasts me about 2 weeks.
We've had people from NY, NJ, and WA ask us to purchase cigs for them here in Atlanta (about $3-4 per pack) and mail them, LOL. Could mean more profits and tax revenue for us here :-D
I believe mailing cigs or cig tobacco is now illegal.
It concerns me becasue I own PM and MO stock. Keep blazing aways...
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