[QUOTE]

 

If people want to smoke, why not let them? Why does this government always have to do things like this? What right do they have to tax cigarettes more than any other products?

BTW - I don't smoke.

 

NY doesn't care who smokes or even if they do. It's just a revenue stream that is available. NYC government has raised fees for everything in the last 6 months from the cigarrette tax to cell phone charges to parking fees and other vehicular penalities. We are in serious debt due to 9/11, many businesses pulled out of NYC and many have just gone bankrupt. The economy sucks and NYC is suffering big time.

 

Holy crap...that's unbelievable. $7.50 for a pack of cigarettes...


<rant mode>

I quit smoking over 10 years ago and I won't even date a girl who smokes. I hate it that much. The problem with these ridiculous taxes on cigs is that the government is talking out of both sides of its mouth. It's telling you to stop smoking and the means by which it's telling it only serves to expand its largesse. Government's hands are so deep into tobacco company's pockets I don't think most people realize how dependent govt is on revenue generated by tobacco sales. I say let people make the choices in their own lives...smoke, don't smoke...whatever...it's all about being accountable for your actions.

Now, the dollars and cents of the issue are this. Huge taxes on cigs to make people quit. Government expands based on this huge pile of revenue generated. Smokers become ex-smokers, due to quitting, death, whatever. What happens to the incoming stream of revenue? Hmmm...it's gone! So what happens next? Taxes of NON smokers have to go up to meet the commitments made with the tobacco revenue. Government continues to expand.

This completely SUCKS...! And it makes me do this --------->

Screw these people who think they need to tell everyone else what is good for them and then tax them into compliance. It's insulting and it's damn freaking expensive. And the last time I checked, tobacco is still legal...oh wait, if the jackasses in the Houses of Congress around the country make it illegal, what would happen the huge trough of cash they once put their big fat snouts into when they needed money? If tobacco is so evil and harmful...MAKE IT ILLEGAL and be done with it! Will they, not on your life. Why? Their heads are so far up the tobacco companies asses that they can't see the light of day.

Can anyone say Nanny State? How about the Boston Tea Party?

Man, maybe I need to relax and have a smoke, but this kind of thing really pisses me off...


</rant mode>

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by turbo_pwr
[B]NY doesn't care who smokes or even if they do.

 

Dan, we cross-posted. You have valid points about the specific problems that NYC faces and I definitely concede that. My points, or rant, was not directed at NYC directly, but at the general issue of taxes and the hypocrisy of govt that tells you to quit and profits billions and billions of dollars...

But you are right about that...good points.

 

why not just light up a dollar bill and smoke it while you're at it? at the rate that the prices are going it might be a buck for a cigerrette butt.

 

Just a side note I smoked for 15 years and quit when the prices hit $4.50 a pack. I had so many other things to do with my money.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ltweintz
[B]If people want to smoke, why not let them?

 

I quit smoking over a quarter century ago. Back then, we would put a quarter into a cigarette vending machine, and the pack would come out with a nickel change stuck in the wrapper