$200M lost to smokes smugglers/Yearly city, state tax shortfall from gang & Internet sales

New York Daily News ^ | 9/23/02 | WILLIAM SHERMAN

[SheLion]

Sorry to hear it. It's bad here, but at least we have a few vestiges of freedom left. I can't imagine living in police states like MA or NY.

I live in Maine. But we don't hear much coming out of Georgia. Your still doing pretty good, I think. Nothing like up here!

[Great Dane]

PUFF. We told 'em so!

We did, I am almost smiling.

[Great Dane]

Anyone who doesn't think these politicians aren't personally getting some of the smuggling proceeds should bid on the Brooklyn Bridge.

This is a fact, when smuggling was big in Canada, even politicians and DOCTORS were smuggling, this from the prime ministers right hand mand, and he said it on television.

Smuggling is back in Canada as well.

[4CJ]

We told 'em so!

Politicians are like the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz" - they all need to get a brain.

[SeaDragon]

PUFF. We told 'em so!

But did they listen?

Noooooooooooo

[Eastbound]

"Everyone who has ever sold anything online should call these people and thank them for lumping us in with criminals."

Criminals include these taxing and control freaks. I hate to be lumped in with a politician.

[jenny65]

The ATF will blame anything on terrorists now in order to increase their budgets.

I was wondering if I was the only one who caught that. "Helping terrorists" seems to be replacing "for the children" as the new battle cry.

[jenny65]

So what should you do now? Drop the taxes or spend more public money to combat tobacco crimes?

When the government waylays consumers with excessive and unjustified taxation such as this - then it is they who are supporting organized crime and street gangs.

Excellent points all around. The parallels with the War On Drugs ought to obvious to everyone. We're quickly moving from a government regulated model to a crime-driven one. Which costs more in terms of money and lives?

The drug/tobacco warriors ought to be learning some important lessons from this. But no, they'll just throw more money and resources at it as usual. Dumb f_cks.

[Trickyguy]

Government=Idiots

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

Maybe organized crime can put a little "capitalism" back into our country. ;) I know that sounds odd, but the government sure isn't able to do it. At least we can trade goods on the black market "without" excessive taxation designed to destroy our economy and transfer all of our wealth to the "redistribution" schemes of the elite. Did the government expect any different reaction?

[dcwusmc]

GO SMUGGLERS! Yea, Internet!

[Eastbound]

Still rolling my own. Can't figure why folks would pay $7 a pack when you can get superior bulk tobacco with no additives for about $1.65 a pack using Natural American Spirit brand.

Using Smokers Warehouse bulk stuff, (not as good a taste as NAS), the cost is about ninety cents a pack. Less bite than tailor-made smokes and less flavor than NAS.

Even if I could afford to pay $7 a pack, I would still roll my own. I get both and mix the 'bakker.' Best of both worlds for about $1.25 a pack. I roll a quick pack when I have to leave the house for the day, and roll'em demand at the house.

PUFF!

[hosepipe]

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed - and hence clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." - H. L. Mencken

"The more laws, the less justice." -Marcus Tullius Cicero

"A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away." Barry M. Goldwater

[NYCVirago]

Everyone who has ever sold anything online should call these people and thank them for lumping us in with criminals.

No kidding!

And geez, didn't these government folks (especially billionaire mayor Michael Bllomberg) ever take a basic economics course? When there are plenty of legal alternatives out there to buying cigarettes in New York City, why would anybody choose to buy their packs there?

[kcpopps]

I'd like to see the manufacturer's profit. This would show, in graphic detail, the farce of "greedy corporations" and the reality of greedy government

Here you go. Keep in mind this graph reflects figures ending 12/31/01 - prior to the recent large tax increases and it is a nationwide average.
That means the government profits are MUCH HIGHER now. Cigarettes are several DOLLARS more than the $3.28 shown here - which is nearly all govt profit.

The biggest profiteer in tobacco business is the government.

[evilsmoker]

"But the Finance Department has only 16 investigators to patrol 13,000 retail stores licensed to sell cigarettes in the city"

Some scary ****!!

[leprechaun9]

Another blunder by the pimps of the election industry!

Why aren't the fools who claimed that the INCREASED revenues would fund Health Care, being shown for the mental midgets that they are?

[Vince Ferrer]

They knew very well what would happen. They created a black market to enhance their own incomes. Anyone who doesn't think these politicians aren't personally getting some of the smuggling proceeds should bid on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I agree. I don't know if this was in the plan to begin with, but it will certainly be the reason why they will never cut the tax, no matter how much it appears they will lose. Their extra income will still be there, but off the books.

[RandallFlagg]

You are missing the obvious. Anybody who has sold anything online hasn't collected and paid sales taxes on it,so from THEIR point of view,we ARE criminals.

Any of the politicians that think the people exist to provide them with a blank check for unlimited spending and governmental waste, from my point of view are criminals.

Hitlery, for one, springs to mind.

[RandallFlagg]

When there are plenty of legal alternatives out there to buying cigarettes in New York City, why would anybody choose to buy their packs there?

That's their plan. Change the rules for their benefit so they won't lose any of their precious income. Make what once was legal, illegal.

Sounds kinda what these same types have been doing to our firearms rights. Ya think?