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The Poor Get Caught in Tobacco's Grip as They Stuggle With Hunger
The Lakeland Ledger via The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | Saturday, October 19, 2013 | ALFRED LUBRANO

Posted on 10/20/2013 5:43:53 AM PDT by Sam's Army

Many people smoke after they've eaten. Lindell Harvey smokes because he hasn't.

"You smoke out of anxiety because you don't have the food you need," said Harvey, 54, who lives alone in Crum Lynne, Pa. He receives disability checks from the Navy that keep him $2,000 below the poverty line.

Harvey relies on his Newports to see him through his hard days. "In my mind, the smoking becomes a comfort as I try to create ways to get food."

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: crumlynne; democrattaxcode; excisetax; excisetaxes; lindellharvey; pennsylvania; secondhandsmoke; tobacco; welfaresmokes
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To: Ditter

I understand. /grin

May I also assume your children aren’t doing without necessities so your dogs can eat? IOW, you actually have a sense of *priorities*?


61 posted on 10/20/2013 7:09:50 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s ((If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
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To: ChildOfThe60s

I am so old that even my grandchildren are grown! No, we were able to feed everyone, kids, dogs and the cows (somehow). :)


62 posted on 10/20/2013 7:18:16 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: Sam's Army

For that $5.00 for smokes, he could have cured that hunger with a happy meal.


63 posted on 10/20/2013 7:20:01 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (I am proud to be a Christian and follower of my Lord Jesus Christ. Time is short for U to know Him!)
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To: Sam's Army

If he’s on disability from the Navy and is $2000 below the poverty line, doesn’t he get food stamps? Something is wrong with this picture.

And as many mentioned, $5 or $6 a day for cigarettes, if put towards food instead, would allow him to buy food. Something is totally wrong with the premise of this story.


64 posted on 10/20/2013 7:32:23 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (cac)
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To: Sam's Army

The irony of this is that tobacco taxes are by far the most regressive taxes in the US. Not just the federal and state cigarette taxes, but the wholesale taxes, the income taxes paid by importers (from Turkey), farmers (domestic), warehouses, wholesalers, cigarette makers, rail and truck transporters, and retailers, as well as the capital gains taxes paid by investors in any corporation involved.

If tobacco was tax-free, a pack of cigarettes would cost from 5-25 cents. The actual prices of tobacco from start to finish.

Oddly enough, China now produces 40% of the world’s tobacco, and has more smokers than the population of the US.


65 posted on 10/20/2013 7:38:31 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Welfare is the new euphemism for Eugenics.)
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To: moovova
You have got to be kidding....these business's had ‘no choice’...the non-smoking laws were established by gov....’not the business owner’...so get your facts straight......it 's regulated (law) by the states....sheesh.

Just as with most non-smokers..you chose to create your own story to justify 'government interference'. Businesses should have the freedom to choose who their clientel is.....Gov., as it always does, took away the freedom for businesses to determine this.

66 posted on 10/20/2013 7:45:19 AM PDT by caww
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To: driftless2
Second hand smoke doesn't bother me. Ciggs are 8 bucks/pack in taxes here in Alaska. Wifey smokes 2 packs a day, she'll quit when they give her 6 weeks to live or when her lungs give out at 83; like her mum. There are worse things you know, like when the she devil of the north runs out and we haven't got a mail plane for a week.

No joke, some people can stop dope, booze, all the addictions; and others just can't. That's how smoking is with the wifey who I have been married to 29 years. I'll get the cancer before she ever will too, ha ha.

67 posted on 10/20/2013 7:45:41 AM PDT by Eska
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To: driftless2

<...”Now when I go in some place where people smoke, the stinky smell is obvious and I have to get into fresh clothes as quick as possible”.....>

You ‘still’ have a choice to go there or not.


68 posted on 10/20/2013 7:49:15 AM PDT by caww
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To: Sam's Army

“When you’re deprived, it creates enormous mental anguish,” said Chilton, an expert on hunger. “One of the fastest, most convenient ways to help is a cigarette. It’ll keep you sane, and keep you from hurting yourself or others.”

Which Libtard left the door to the locked ward open again?


69 posted on 10/20/2013 7:51:37 AM PDT by GladesGuru (Islam Delenda Est - Because of what Islam is and because of what Muslims do.)
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To: boycott

He probably is selling the food stamps to buy butts.


70 posted on 10/20/2013 7:53:04 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (The "government" is nothing but a RAT jobs program)
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To: Sam's Army

The cruelty and pure evil of inanimate objects never ceases to astound me. Next, we’ll learn that sofas grab on to the poor’s gigantic butts and refuse to let them get up and leave their apartments to find work. :)


71 posted on 10/20/2013 7:54:09 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: JRandomFreeper

“Tobacco is not that difficult to grow. I don’t spend anything like $5/day on cigarettes. I do have to spend some time out in the garden, though.
/johnny “

Dat be wasis!

Cracka gettin cheap tobacco and stealin’ vitamin D from de po at de same time!


72 posted on 10/20/2013 7:54:21 AM PDT by GladesGuru (Islam Delenda Est - Because of what Islam is and because of what Muslims do.)
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To: TomGuy
[Disclaimer: I smoked for 4 decades. I quit in January 2003. I have empathy for smokers, but smokers can quit — if they really want to.]

Yesterday was my 13th year anniversary smoke free after 40 years of smoking.

73 posted on 10/20/2013 7:55:33 AM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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To: GladesGuru

I tried growing some here along the Yukon River in Ak. Too cold, didn’t do well until I stuck plants in the green house. When it got cold, I brought them 3 plants in the house, they are 5 foot tall now, and flowers have dropped seed pods which I’m trying to collect. I’m going to start them in the greenhouse nx year. That Virgina Gold, won’t even make the wifey quit, ha ha.


74 posted on 10/20/2013 8:01:37 AM PDT by Eska
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To: TomGuy

With this guy’s Navy disability, he doesn’t need to get Obamacare. As a disabled veteran, he’s got VA medical benefits.


75 posted on 10/20/2013 8:08:33 AM PDT by Bob
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To: Eska
I start my tobacco here in Texas inside at the end of January. They go out in the garden after Easter, and are done before the killer heat gets here.

You just have to experiment with when to start 'em and when to grow 'em. ;)

/johnny

76 posted on 10/20/2013 8:08:37 AM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: TomGuy

Good question.I guess we can sue re: 14th Amend. Once it takes hold.


77 posted on 10/20/2013 8:22:24 AM PDT by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux)
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To: Sam's Army
Half the population of earth lives on a diet of rice and beans.

A pound of dried black beans is about $1. So is rice. A pound of rice and beans is enough for a couple of days.

The government/media complex rings their hands because the blame fast food for obesity, then they ring their hands because "poor" people can't afford fast food.

78 posted on 10/20/2013 8:22:35 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who knew that one day professional wrestling would be less fake than professional journalism?)
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To: Sam's Army

This is none of the government’s business.

This article is just more of the ten minutes of hate for the day. The government made cigs the price they are today in order to harm the targets. Then they condemn the addicts for spending so much on smokes.

How bout everyone mind their own business for a change and refuse to give the communists punitive taxes on products and preferences for groups/tribes/classes of people.


79 posted on 10/20/2013 8:23:02 AM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: JRandomFreeper

The article is one more bird-cage-liner piece of LIB crap. The guy should get off his smokin’ butt and buy some food. He sounds like yet another “woe is me” bum who makes continuous bad decisions for him self..


80 posted on 10/20/2013 8:24:22 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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