New York Loses $400 Million After Imposing The Nation’s Highest Cigarette Tax

The Daily Caller ^ | 12/28/2015 | Guy Bentley

[SmokingJoe]

The best states to buy cigs from when you are from New York are Delaware and Pennsylvania.

[sheana]

Ups and fedex both agreed not to ship them.

https://www.ups.com/tobacco

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/02/tobacco_fedex.html

I knew what I was talking about or I wouldn’t have posted it

[Pontiac]

Very true

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

Socialists have never understood economics.

OMG, you mean Bernie is an economic imbecile? Who woulda thunk it...

[1_Rain_Drop]

If I ordered (which I can’t) cigarettes from another State, I’d still have to pay NYS tax. There’s no escaping NYS taxes.

[boop]

What's interesting is that smoking USED to be the #1 cause of preventable death.

Now It's obesity.

So for those who cheered the demonization of smokers, better get used to having YOUR caloric intake monitored and regulated.

And get ready to exercise.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Easier and more profitable to smuggle cigarettes than heroin.

[nobamanomore]

You would think that eventually Democrats would quit trying to subvert laws of economics.....but the won’t.

[patriot08]

That’s very hard to believe.
Source? :)

[patriot08]

Alcohol Abuse Costs US More than $220 Billion a Year

image

Alcohol Abuse Costs US More than $220 Billion a Year
View on www.youtube.com
Preview by Yahoo

STUDY: Alcohol Kills 10% Of U.S. Adults

image

STUDY: Alcohol Kills 10% Of U.S. Adults
View on www.youtube.com
Preview by Yahoo

[arthurus]

Many socialists do understand eocnomics but they believe that if they do not allow the population to learn history and economics then the people can be molded to make contra-natural systems actualy work. That they will never be cured of. If everyone can be made to think the same way then that way will work as they determine that it should work.

[muir_redwoods]

The single stupidest thing the left regularely does is fail to realize that taxes change behavior. I’m certain their smartest strategist was convinced that doubling the tax on cigarettes would double the tax revenue.

[jttpwalsh]

Kind of like a take on the old Nazi era warning “First they came for the smokers, but I didn’t object, because I didn’t smoke, then they came for the obese, but I did not say anything, because I wasn’t obese . . .”

Thanks.

[boop]

VERY apt.

In Nazi Germany, Hitler was the first to implement anti-smoking laws (for the greater glory of the Third Reich)

I am CERTAIN that obese people were considered "undermenschen"

But Hitler hadn't gotten around to them yet.

Plus, many of his generals were fatasses.

Would have been hard to get rid of his inner circle.

[boop]

"I’m certain their smartest strategist was convinced that doubling the tax on cigarettes would double the tax revenue."

Yes. And being even STUPIDER, some states like CA have now raised the age for purchasing tobacco to 21.

Cool story, bro.

Now you've all but guaranteed that 18 year olds will get cigarettes.

Based on general principles.

What? I can die for my country, yet not be allowed to drink?

Yes, and you can't smoke, either.

[CurlyDave]

Source? :)

Well, how about the federal government as a source, specifically the CDC.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html

"Tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking kills more than 480,000 Americans each year, with more than 41,000 of these deaths from exposure to secondhand smoke.1 In addition, smoking-related illness in the United States costs more than $300 billion a year, including nearly $170 billion in direct medical care for adults and $156 billion in lost productivity" Of course, there are cost savings to the government from smokers. One of the reasons Social Security is not even more underwater than it already is stems from the earlier deaths off smokers, which means SS payments stop.

The cost figures you quote seem to come from the very same CDC, where the more precise number is $223.5 billion for alcohol.

http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcoholconsumption/index.html

But, annual deaths are only 88,000. This is only one fifth as many deaths as for the smokers.

I am not quite sure how to handle the real costs. What is the monetary value of the extra 392,000 lives lost?

But, any way you slice it, the societal costs os smoking are higher than the societal costs of alcohol. Which, by the way, is already highly taxed. For instance, in NY City, the taxes are: $13.50 per gallon federal, plus approx $6.80 per gallon state, and $1/gallon city.

[patriot08]

Bye, Curly

[jttpwalsh]

Good point !

[CurlyDave]

Why do I think you are an ardent smoker, but do not drink very much?

[patriot08]

I don’t know what gave you that idea. Never smoked or drank

My grandfather is 87 and smoked since he was a very young man. When it got so he couldn’t afford cigs, he bought a little electric cig making machine, buys pipe tobacco, cig tubes and makes pretty good cigs for about a buck a pk.

I do have a distant relative who drinks and has caused at least one death and untold damage and heartbreak with his family.

I just think it unfair to tax one killer so heavily and not the other, that’s all.