Posted on 08/08/2006 11:12:52 AM PDT by freemarket_kenshepherd
Marking the one-year anniversary of longtime smoker Peter Jennings’ death from lung cancer, ABC’s Dr. Timothy Johnson wrote up a prescription as outdated and ineffective as bleeding a patient: growing government.
“At the government level there are three proven techniques. One is to raise prices by increasing taxes, the second is to limit access by minors, and the third is to conduct mass media campaigns,” Johnson said on the August 7 “World News with Charles Gibson.”
Although ABC's medical editor went on to slam government for having “dropped the ball” on his prescription, anchor Charles Gibson didn’t include anyone with a second opinion.
If he had, that person could have mentioned a 1998 study by Cornell University, which found that “a $1.50 a pack tax boost” on cigarettes would only “reduce the number [of smokers] by about two percentage points.”
One reason for the lack of drop-off in smoking is that heavy taxation merely encourages consumers to seek untaxed tobacco. High tobacco taxes encourage cigarette smuggling, tax evasion and black markets, while ultimately losing governments millions in revenue.
Cato Institute senior fellow Robert Levy wrote on March 20, 1999, that “a $1.00 bump in price” from tax hikes “will mean $23 billion in potential black-market profits” for bootleggers, about four times the U.S. net income of America’s largest tobacco makers.
Four years later Tax Foundation economist Patrick Fleenor took an in-depth look at how high taxes on cigarettes create a crime-ridden black market for smokes, and a year later the General Accounting Office (since renamed the Government Accountability Office – GAO) found similar results.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessandmedia.org ...
Tim Johnson, when he worked at Lynn Hospital, wanted to cut my sons ear lobe off after an accident. My Ex told him he was an ahole, exact quote, and saw a real doctor, she is a nurse. The kid still has an ear Lobe and one stitch.
Many here on FR would support any measure to punish smokers. The anti-smoking zealots cannot be appeased, and therefore must be marginalized and defeated.
That Tim Johnson,what a smart guy.I mean to come up with the concept of taxing tobacco products,what a novel idea !!!
The only thing harder than a smoker giving up cigarettes is the government trying to give up revenue. Making cigarettes a 'profit center' for the government makes the government a willing partner in the industry.
Please, oh great and powerful government, take EVERY last freedom away from me because you know it's for my own good. You, oh great and praiseworthy government, take care of me from womb to tomb.
If I should cut myself, ban the blade.
If I should glutton myself, smash the baker.
If I should become malcontent, squash it's source.
If I become sick from indulgence, tax me to no end.
Oh great and powerful government, please provide every substance I need, repel every potential curse I face, and drive away all the irritants of my life. Surely that is your purpose, Oh Great And Powerful Government.
(sorry, I'm in a mood today)
subterfuge
Congrats to the ex.
Keep the mood!
If high cigarette taxes discourage smoking, what sort of behavior do high income taxes encourage?
Combined with runaway social programs redistributing the earner's wealth confiscated with the high taxes, an idiot could see the problem here.
I have a better prescription. End ALL government-paid medical care for adults. End government regulations that force employers to cover smokers (or anyone else) under group insurance policies. Let the free market work, which includes letting insurance companies charge whatever the real cost is for insuring any particular person, or refuse to insure particular people, or refuse to cover certain ailments. Lots of people will figure out how to quit smoking when they have to pay for the results themselves (and will figure out how to prevent spouses, children, etc. from smoking). The rest will die prematurely at their own hands and/or be a lot poorer than they otherwise would have been.
The free market is a wonderful device. Take it away and nobody knows the real cost of anything.
Whether it is the government footing the bill directly, or the government forcing private industry to do it, breaking the link between the payor and the beneficiary can only result in Socialism.
Even forms of insurance that are not "catastophic" coverage with high deductibles result in inceased usage and increased prices for just about everything.
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