[compman]

Ok, they say with every 10% increase in the tax, the smoking rates for youth go down 6.5% and 2% for adults. So, they are going to raise the tax 400%, so the effective smoking rates should go down 240% and 80% respectively. How do they come up with actually taking in more money when there will basically be no smokers left? Also, how do you stop youth smoking by 240%? Once again, their numbers lie, lie, lie.

[Foolsgold]

Was I mis-informed or did I hear that ALL of the States and the fed are crying because the gasoline tax income is dropping due to less miles driven and mandated higher milage cars??? Naw it had to be my imagination

[MinnesotaLibertarian]

Also, how do you stop youth smoking by 240%?

Your math is off. Percentages are relative. If you decrease something by 10%, and then again by another 10%, you have not decreased it 20%; you've decreased it 19%. If you decrease it by another 10%, you've decreased the original amount by 27.1%. As you can see, continuing this, you'll never get all the way to 100%, let alone 240%.