Good. Now non-smokers can experience pain of withdrawals.
Who did not see this coming?
But they’re saving money by the bucketfulls in healthcare expenses, right???
I guess they must have cut the courses that discussed price elasticity. Remember, dear “progressives”, what you subsidize you will get more of and what you tax you will get less. If the taxed smokers can purchase their sticks elsewhere or on the internet, then you are experiencing a very good lesson.
I hae long thought that the state governments were becoming so addicted to tobacco tax money that when people started to quit in enough numbers they would start ad campaigns to encourage smoking to keep up revenue.
They added the tax to stop people from smoking. People did and now they say they are losing money - how can that be since they said it would make money due to the decrease in medical costs as well.
Was there no reduction in medical costs? How come?
Textbook case of a “duh!” moment.
I swear, there are times when I think organized crime was/is behind these tax increases. You may smile, but think about it a minute -- they're the only ones whoever profit from this. And,boy, do they profit!
Nanny State PING!
The law of unintended consequences.........
They actually thought it would last forever. They demanded more and more, made smokers more and more isolated and yet the morons thought it could last forever. LOL
...Compels one to want to smuggle Havanas.
Make them illegal and then listen to the politicians. Stupid bass turds.
I don't need to tell you that the truckers are doing the same thing.
It’s not the $$$, it’s the “feel good”. (ya wantted some one f—
ked, congratulations! Your it.)
There will come a time when taxes are raised across the board because the "sin" taxes have done their job and made people either quit or turn to nontaxable sources, and THEN we will hear the anti-smokers squeal like the pigs they are.
Why don’t they raise the taxes even more? That should solve the problem. </sarc>
But that’s what they wanted!
I’m sure I’m not coming down off the mountain with the tablets here and the thought has occurred to all of us...
Somebody else is going to be REALLY, REALLY PISSED at the end of the day.
Smokers are already REALLY, REALLY PISSED that we are persecuted, shamed, and dehumanized in the name of the “public good”.
File this under Schadenfreude. Flip a coin, and unless it lands on its side, you can guarantee that one of 2 things will happen as a result of the Tobacco Control experiment:
They ban smoking everywhere and raise cigarette taxes in order to coerce smokers to quit. Whatever the result, some smug people will get their comeuppance. Either:
A. The TC experiment is successful and smoking rates drop from 25% to below the 10% goal of TC advocates...in which case the stupid part time State legislators/Realtors and their state treasury will see a huge decline in revenue due to all of the smokers who quit. The tobacco revenue bonds that were floated and the programs that relied on tobacco revenue will be sucking wind and they will have to raid the teacher’s pension fund to come up with the money. The state will be REALLY, REALLY PISSED (they thought asking smokers to fork over an extra buck or step outside for a smoke was about public health and golly gee, lives would be saved)Or
B. The Social Engineering experiment fails and smoking rates do not decline. In which case the Tobacco Control people will be REALLY, REALLY PISSED. They couldn’t care less whether people are annoyed by smoke and they know damn well their SHS argument doesn’t even pass the laugh test.
I guess the moral of the story is...
One of these groups is going to be REALLY, REALLY PISSED. I don’t know which one, but it’s a zero sum game. Somebody will lose.