Come on, now that Da Gummint is PARTNER$ w/ the tobacco industry, do they REALLY want them to quit..?
NO WAY..!!!
they do not want smokers to quit...quite the contrary, they want them to keep smoking and keep paying those taxes....its been a big payoff to the trial lawyers.....
I smoke a couple cigarettes some days, some days not-a pack last 2 weeks or so-I also like a glass of wine or a beer sometimes-these are things I enjoy, and I don’t care how much the cost, I will pay for things I enjoy LEGALLY as an adult, period. Nannys can’t stand for anyone to enjoy anything they don’t like-food, drink, smoke-next they’ll be telling us how many times a week we can have sex-someone needs to tell them to stfu and get a life...
Quit when they go up a $1? Hell I quit for good decades ago when they got up to a $1 a pack.
In 1980 I was a year out of high school and working in a convenience store. I can’t tell you the number of people who said to me, “When cigarettes hit $1 a pack I’m quitting”.
I doubt many did.
If the government can put price controls in place, they can manipulate the behavior of the sheeple.
Not news.
But, the traffic to the smoke shacks is never ending. And, most of the cars going there are beaters. That tells me that the people who are buying cigs are the least who can afford them.
Just my observation.
So if they cost $5 more smokers would be 100% more likely to quit?
I quit in early 2003.
Highest I ever paid for a carton was around $38 in 1999. They were around $18 per carton at a Native American tobacco store when I quit.
Over the years, I call the money I saved as my ‘mad money.’ When I think about a computer or laptop upgrade, etc., I take it from the ‘mad money.’ It would have gone up in smoke otherwise. I figure I have around $2500-3000 per year available.
I think current prices are around $6 per pack plus tax of $1.15 or around $280 per month.
why don’t they just make cigarettes with no nicotine? (and not those cocoa-shells ones either)
And the rise of the black market.
I bought name brands Winstons, Marlboros, Camels in the 50’s for 25¢ pack or box, 2 bucks a carton. Everything is up or is it the dollar is down ?...if it’s killing you fails your attention...
No, as tax goes up, more people buy illegal cigarettes brought in from low tax states. Sales of legal cigarettes as measured by tax stamp sales fall. Thus proponents of tax increases can always “prove” there are fewer smokers. But number of people who smoke doesn’t drop as much as claimed. But profits of smugglers, many connected to Mideast terrorist organizations go up.
I roll my own for about $1.30 a pack.
F*** the government.
L
Raise ‘em $5 a pack and end smoking.
They said the same thing when they went over a buck a pack, then when they hit over $5 a pack. Folks still buy the crap. Many roll their own as a slightly cheaper way. Or move to a pipe.