The dirty little secret is that the high taxes on cigarettes and alcohol crush poorer people.
They can justify it any way that want—but that is the rich stealing from the poor—right in front of our eyes.
It is also the rich paying health care costs and whatever else you may think sin taxes do reduce consumption.
I saw cigarettes the other day in a convenience store priced at $11.29 a pack.
How can anyone afford that?!
By the way, credit card balances have reached an all-time high of $1.13 Trillion with an average interest rate of 20%. Defaults are also way up, around 25%.
Emergency unsecured loans with annual interest of over 50% are also way up. The working poor are getting buried.