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It's noteworthy that the new tax on tobacco has pushed a single pack of cigarettes to near $7 each. Smokeless tobacco, bulk tobacco, and virtually all tobacco products have been taxed heavily to discourage their use, sometimes more than doubling the taxes currently levied.
Maybe it's time to put a sin tax on the second greatest health problem facing Americans. Obesity.
It's time we start taxing unhealthy foods that are the basis for our obese society.
Smoking can harm others via secondhand smoke. Obesity doesn't (I've never seen secondhand fat). While I think its not a bad idea to tax certain food products, I don't see it has being as beneficial.
Here's a better idea. Offer tax incentives to companies that encourage employee health and don't overwork employees while giving them a fair pay. Employees that work 50+ or 60+ hours per week for the benefit of a company that will readily screw them at the earliest convenience to help stock prices are more likely to eat fast or unhealthy meals because of prep time and effort.
I've been working 60+ hours per week as a CNA for 6 months. I'm always on my feet and have little energy for work and sleep. As a result I'm not biking to work like I did when I was only 40 hours per week and on my days off, all I do is sleep.
Encourage employers to make employee health part of their concern, that would be a better way to address obeisity.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,065,879 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdne
Ban smoking?
OK, then let's ban fatty foods, Big Macs, french fries, Fritos, Cheetos, and flour tortillas. Ban any food that the FDA says is not good for health.
Let the government dictate which days you have to walk to work to get some exercise, and how many minutes one has to hold his heart rate at 120 bpm.
Let's take common sense and throw it out the window. Let the government think for you, and make those healthy decisions about your lifestyle.
Smoking should be banned all together because it affects the air quality of non smokers who did not choose to light up. When will you smokers realize that YOUR habit does not just affect YOU but affects OTHERS around you! As soon as I'm exposed to the cigarette smoke of others, my eyes water up and my breathing is affected.
BY the way, you cannot compare smoking to other habits such as eating fatty foods as the fatty foods only affects the health of those who consume them unlike second hand cigarette smoke.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,065,879 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by cdne
It's not about "carcinogens", it's about the freedom of personal choice. You know, the choice to make decisions and then live with the consequences, whether they be good or bad. Some fast foods are as detrimental to health as smoking. If you believe that, just drive to your nearest junior high school and watch the little fatties waddle to the bus or car.
When government tries to dictate good behavior, it replaces personal responsibility with a nanny state.
What choices do non-smokers have when forced to breathe in the second hand smoke of cigarettes?
BY the way, you cannot compare smoking to other habits such as eating fatty foods as the fatty foods only affects the health of those who consume them unlike second hand cigarette smoke.
Let's compare it to driving, then. Exhaust fumes are far more dangerous than cigarette smoke. When you start your car, you're affecting everyone around you. If you don't keep your car in perfect mechanical condition, you're allowing it to generate even more toxic output.
Let me know when you're going to call for a ban on automobiles.
Location: Somewhere gray and damp, close to the West Coast
20,954 posts, read 5,565,773 times
Reputation: 8559
Quote:
Originally Posted by msconnie73
Smoking should be banned all together because it affects the air quality of non smokers who did not choose to light up. When will you smokers realize that YOUR habit does not just affect YOU but affects OTHERS around you! As soon as I'm exposed to the cigarette smoke of others, my eyes water up and my breathing is affected.
BY the way, you cannot compare smoking to other habits such as eating fatty foods as the fatty foods only affects the health of those who consume them unlike second hand cigarette smoke.
Probably about the same time as you drivers realize that phoning home while behind the wheel affects others around you, and you horndogs realize that unprotected sex affects others around you and..............
Hey smoking Nazis! Legislate THIS Oops! Sorry, wrong finger.
We should actually get rid of the child tax credit completely.
ROFLMAO!!!
You don't have a chance in hades!!!
But maybe if you stand on busy street corners with a big plackard, well, maybe, just maybe you will get one or two other total nutcases to join your cause!!!!
Too funny - you can't make this stuff up!!!
Thanks for the belly laugh!!
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Oops! Sorry, wrong finger.
