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America’s new tobacco crisis: The rich stopped smoking, the poor didn’t.
WP ^ | 6/13/2017 | William Wan

Posted on 06/13/2017 6:52:09 PM PDT by Fhios

" ... The national smoking rate has fallen to historic lows, with just 15 percent of adults still smoking. But the socioeconomic gap has never been bigger. ..."

"... Among the nation’s less-educated people — those with a high-school-equivalency diploma — the smoking rate remains more than 40 percent ..."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: fakenews; puff; pufflist; smoking; statistics
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I might be missing something. The article is written to imply less educated people smoke more, but I'm looking at the numbers and it's saying otherwise. 15% people still smoke, under 50% of smokers are uneducated and more than 50% are educated.

Found under the drudge headline

Smoking rate 40% 'among the nation's less-educated people'...

WTF? Am I wrong?

1 posted on 06/13/2017 6:52:09 PM PDT by Fhios
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To: Fhios

Tobacco taxes discriminate against the poor. Eliminate them. They pay their own way by kicking off earlier than the rest of us. I’m 60. If I take up smoking it will take 20+ years to catch up with me. Besides, tobacco is the one pleasure they can afford(expensive vacations-not). Problem solved.


2 posted on 06/13/2017 6:58:45 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Fhios

subtitle:
Smokers are stupid.


3 posted on 06/13/2017 7:02:50 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET
Besides, tobacco is the one pleasure they can afford

42.3 million people are on food stamps.

Statistically, they are going to be a higher percentage of smokers.

4 posted on 06/13/2017 7:07:15 PM PDT by mountn man (The Pleasure You Get From Life, Is Equal To The Attitude You Put Into It)
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To: Fhios

I’ve definitely noticed this, driving around the poorer areas of my neck of the woods.

I suppose maybe wealthier people smoke in their houses.


5 posted on 06/13/2017 7:07:29 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Liberals think in propaganda)
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To: Steely Tom

Nobody notices that the stats given indicate more educated people smoke as a percentage.


6 posted on 06/13/2017 7:11:17 PM PDT by Fhios
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To: Drango

>>subtitle:
Smokers are stupid.<<

Smokers were stupid as children. Smoking is stupid and there is not a smoker alive who a) wishes they never started and b) does not want to quit.

They say quitting smoking is harder that quitting heroin. I never did heroin but I assure you quitting smoking is damn hard.

I have complete sympathy for those who have not been able to quit.


7 posted on 06/13/2017 7:12:47 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (The Civil Rights movement compared content of their character to skin color and chose the latter)
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To: Drango
subtitle:
Smokers are stupid.

What I immediately thought, and what I see in life.

8 posted on 06/13/2017 7:16:24 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: Fhios

Historically, a huge improvement in governance followed the spread of tobacco use around the world.
Back then, it’s health defects didn’t matter since death came so early.

Would like to see tobacco required to be used by those 20 to 40...


9 posted on 06/13/2017 7:16:51 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: freedumb2003

Children of the 50’s through the 70’s probably had stupid parents who trained them to be stupid smokers.


10 posted on 06/13/2017 7:17:02 PM PDT by Fhios
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To: Fhios

YOU, son, are the one who is STUPID!


11 posted on 06/13/2017 7:20:08 PM PDT by Rembrandt
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To: freedumb2003
there is not a smoker alive who a) wishes they never started and b) does not want to quit.

The old smoker's mafia that used to be here would viciously deny that assertion, just like they attack as a gang anyone that criticized smoking. You have been here long enough to remember them.

12 posted on 06/13/2017 7:20:54 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: DIRTYSECRET
Tobacco taxes discriminate against the poor.
Laura Ingram said Eric Garner (I can't breathe) might still be alive if it weren't for the exorbitant tobacco tax in NYC. He wouldn't have had much of an incentive to sell loosies on the street in front of that bodega on Staten Isl.
13 posted on 06/13/2017 7:21:17 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (Islamophobic? NO! IslamABHORic)
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To: Fhios
This is what you're missing:


14 posted on 06/13/2017 7:21:50 PM PDT by raybbr (That progressive bumper sticker on your car might just as well say, "Yes, I'm THAT stupid!")
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To: Fhios

The decrease in smoking has been one of the most dramatic changes in our culture over the last 20-30 years.

My best observation has been my being on a college campus on a regular basis for 30 years. Twenty years ago I would say that 40-50% of the students were at least social smokers. Today, I doubt that number is even at 10%.


15 posted on 06/13/2017 7:22:29 PM PDT by Timpanagos1
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To: doorgunner69
The old smoker's mafia that used to be here...

Those were different times, but man those were some nasty battles.

16 posted on 06/13/2017 7:24:39 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: raybbr

I would say, so what if they haven’t all gone down equally?


17 posted on 06/13/2017 7:25:09 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Fhios

Never smoked cigs...killed my dad, but I do enjoy the once a week cigar.


18 posted on 06/13/2017 7:31:18 PM PDT by wyowolf (Be ware when the preachers take over the Republican party...)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

You say...tobacco is a pleasure?! I say...the immediate gratification of the need to get a fix for an addiction which won’t last is what the smokers have got going on. Which won’t last...the fix not the addiction. The addiction will keep coming back over and over again. Thus the need for a fix over and over again. Addiction needing a fix. Not real pleasure. Being a junkie is not the same thing as seeking pleasure. Being a junkie is the weakness of being too stupid to find a method of finding freedom.


19 posted on 06/13/2017 7:35:02 PM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: Fhios

In Hawaii, I can tell you from years of carefully observing, that WELFARE RECIPIENTS ONLY smoke.


20 posted on 06/13/2017 7:37:35 PM PDT by jobim
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