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Typical American Smokers Burn Up at Least $1 Million During Their Lifetimes
Time Magazine ^ | January 22, 2015 | Kevin McSpadden

Posted on 01/22/2015 8:04:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Alaska smokers will spend over $2 million.

American smokers spend at least $1 million dollars on cigarette-related expenditures over their lifetimes, according to a state-by-state analysis done by the financial consultancy company WalletHub.

The most expensive state for smokers is Alaska, where the habit costs over $2 million dollars on average. For a bargain, move to South Carolina, but that still comes in at nearly $1.1 million.

“I and most people really just think of the cost of cigarettes and taxes on the packs, but if you think about the healthcare costs, which can totally be avoided, healthcare insurance premiums, and in the workplace, bias against smokers, that can … add up,” said WalletHub spokeswoman Jill Gonzalez....

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


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: cigarettes; cigarettescost; smokers; smokerscost; smoking; tobacco
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Smoking rate is a its lowest while the medical costs are the highest ever.

What happened to all the promised saving on health care from all those tens of millions who quit last few decades?

Tobacco is an ancient medicinal plant, a panacea with myriad beneficial effects on human health. The war on tobacco is merely one front in the general war on non-big-pharma medicines and folk remedies going on around the world. As recent economic analysis of the impact of the 2007 smoking ban in Denmark demonstrates, the only industry that gained from it was the big pharma, everyone else lost.

21 posted on 01/22/2015 9:30:59 PM PST by nightlight7
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They are nuts!

I smoked a pack a day for 60 years and even if they were $5 a pack that would only be $110,000 and over the last 60 years they wouldn’t average $1.75/pack which would only be less than $40,000.


22 posted on 01/22/2015 9:42:43 PM PST by dalereed
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To: dalereed
B T T T ! ! ! ©

23 posted on 01/22/2015 9:44:50 PM PST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: onyx
I quit 6 years ago when our doctor told me that if I didn't quit I would be sucking on an oxygen bottle.

I never had a cigarette since that day and still have a half pack sitting on my dash in case I want to start again.

Anyone can quit, all they have to do is want to.

My wife can't quit but admits she really doesn't want to.

24 posted on 01/22/2015 9:53:44 PM PST by dalereed
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To: dalereed

You’re right, dearest Dale.
God bless you.


25 posted on 01/22/2015 9:54:45 PM PST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: Ronin

Hang in there..I have gone stretches (year here, months there, some more years -yes plural-; and then months). Point is, a good friend said it best to me; “Too late, it got ya, now its a matter of just saying NO when the urge strikes when you feel like you can control ‘IT’”. This guy quit 10 years ago and works in a bar (imagine that). I am on my second week smoke free; again. It is waaaaaaay more than the nicotine; it is the other hundreds if not thousands (if websites are to be believed) of other chemicals that get us. Bottom line, we dont need to inhale smoke. Ever. You hang in there and I will too.


26 posted on 01/22/2015 10:11:00 PM PST by Ghost of SVR4 (So many are so hopelessly dependent on the government that they will fight to protect it.)
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Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: onedoug

I quit in the same way, but for me it was pneumonia. It’s been 17 years since I quit. BUT, I still love cigarettes and want to smoke almost every day. I live overseas now and smokes here are $1 per pack. I think about it a lot, but to break a 17 year streak is a bridge too far snd that’s what keeps me going.


28 posted on 01/22/2015 10:48:43 PM PST by BRK
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A severe stroke will change your point of view! Stop now!
If you don’t, I still love you.


29 posted on 01/22/2015 10:51:28 PM PST by namvolunteer (Obama says the US is subservient to the UN and the Constitution does not apply. That is treason.r)
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To: Ronin

Ronin,
Find and download some stop smoking “counters” from the net. They track seconds, minutes, days, hours, and weeks etc since you stopped. They also count cigarettes, packs and money saved. Watching those counters kept me going through the very tough times. Those times when you suck air in through your teeth, when you try to break your fingers by clenching them so hard, and when climbing up the wall like a spider seems possible. They also have a “reset” button, so if you smoke all your counters go back to zero...the thought of pushing that button will keep you going.


30 posted on 01/22/2015 11:02:39 PM PST by BRK
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To: BRK

Cool!!!!


31 posted on 01/23/2015 12:31:02 AM PST by Ronin (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life - Rep. L. Gohmert, Tex)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What is the gov’t cut?


32 posted on 01/23/2015 12:34:49 AM PST by Organic Panic
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To: dalereed

I agree

This is like MADD

Bullshit

Let folks smoke

I loved Reds


33 posted on 01/23/2015 12:52:17 AM PST by wardaddy (glenn beck is a nauseous politically correct conservative on LSD)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

At $20 per day average, it would take 137 years as a smoker to spend $1 mil. And as we all know smoking kills everyone who does it in much less time that that, I believe the numbers to be totally imaginary.


34 posted on 01/23/2015 3:41:54 AM PST by jstaff
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To: jstaff

It’s like all government accounting, based on the rectal system as the source of their assumptions.


35 posted on 01/23/2015 3:53:17 AM PST by Covenantor ("Men are ruled...by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern." Chesterton)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Also if you assume an average wage of about $15 per hour, it takes about 37 years to even earn $1 Mil. Take away taxes, living expenses, that should leave about 8-10k if you don’t have anyone else to support and you are frugal. If you figure on the upper number and spent 10k per year on smoking and related expenses it would still take 100 years. Hardly any of my close friends have a 100 year working life.


36 posted on 01/23/2015 3:54:46 AM PST by jstaff
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To: jstaff

One cigarette paper, about 1 cent, 3 cents worth of tobacco= about 80 cents a pack of 20 or $8 a carton. And no ready made product can even come close to the smooth rich flavor of my smokes.


37 posted on 01/23/2015 4:13:48 AM PST by eastforker (Cruz for steam in 2016)
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To: dalereed

Toss that stale half pack! I quit for the same reason 7 years ago but I really didn’t want to, I felt forced to. Same reason..couldn’t picture myself on oxygen and Dr. told me I had beginnings of COPD. I had the breathing test done again 5 years after quitting (for sleep study, unrelated) and it came up clear so I don’t know if my doctor was “exaggerating” things to get me to quit or if it really can be reversed.


38 posted on 01/23/2015 4:20:08 AM PST by kelly4c (http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=2900389%2C41#help)
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To: Ghost of SVR4

It could be the other chemicals yes but it can also just be nicotine for some people too. For instance, I’m addicted to the nicorette gum. I don’t get the same satisfaction out of it but I definitely need to chew it or else I feel similar to when I needed a cig.


39 posted on 01/23/2015 4:22:31 AM PST by kelly4c (http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=2900389%2C41#help)
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To: BRK

Same here. I don’t want to smoke every day but if I smell it on someone’s clothing or walk past the guys outside on break it can get annoying. Even some anti-smoking commercials when they show somebody with one in their mouth and the smoke swirling out I’m thinking what are they trying to do with that imagery...torture those who’ve already quit? Like you, the thing that keeps me going is all the struggle the first couple years...it will all be for naught if I start back up. No way will I take that monkey on my back again.


40 posted on 01/23/2015 4:29:34 AM PST by kelly4c (http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=2900389%2C41#help)
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