The children be darned! Tobacco taxes.

**blue** · 03-29-2009, 11:34 PM

I and many other tobacco users are quiting, and not for our health. We are quiting because of the 158% tax hike on tobacco products. The increase in tax is to fund the SCHIP program for children.

The POTUS promised he wouldnt raise taxes on the poor, news flash, most smokers and tobacco users are poor!

Screw the kids, Im quiting. I allready have to pay for kids to go to school even though I dont have any of my own. Im damn sure not going to pay anymore.

I do not feel represented tax wise.

**joycenalex** · 03-30-2009, 05:30 AM

when people quit smoking, there is less bladder cancer, less head and neck cancers, less lung cancers, less heart diseases, less vascular diseases, win for the children! the children who will grow up with less ear infections from second hand smoke in their homes. less demand on health care all around....a good thing right?

**happylabs** · 03-30-2009, 08:22 AM

I see this as a good thing. Smoking is very bad for you and your pets as well, as well as the environment. You can do it!

**joycenalex** · 03-30-2009, 09:25 AM

blue, i've been going around and around on this in my head and in conversation with friends.i don't smoke so that sin tax isn't paid for by me, but i do have an alcoholic drink from time to time and i pay that sin tax. i don't have kids either, so i get no direct benefit from my school taxes on my property, yet those school taxes SOMEONE else paid for made my schooling possible, that schooling made it possible for me to be a tax paying and productive citizen. kids got no choice in who their parents are. that kid deserves the same chance you got and i got. keeping kids healthy is a good thing, maybe they won't smoke, eat cheese doodles by the bagful, shoot speed, maybe one of those kids who gets that health insurance in alaska won't get tetanus cause the kids' parents could get those childhood vaccines cause of the health insurance for them.
i'm downright peeved when i make that tax payment, and i crab up a storm, but it's my paying back for what someone paid for me when i was a kid.

**Edwina's Secretary** · 03-30-2009, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by joycenalex

kids got no choice in who their parents are. that kid deserves the same chance you got and i got. i'm downright peeved when i make that tax payment, and i crab up a storm, but it's my paying back for what someone paid for me when i was a kid.

I do not have children. I am self-employed and pay taxes that would make the eyes of many roll back in their heads.

I consider it the price for living in a civilized society.

I consider the portion that goes for schools and parks and other "kid stuff" pay back as joycenalex says.

I also consider it an investment. Kids who are in school or at the park or after school programs are not breaking into my house or spraying graffitti on my building or getting knocked up.

They are getting an education so that when I am retired they can pay for things...roads, police, firefighters...and yes...social security.

**lvpets2002** · 03-30-2009, 12:24 PM

I am so glad I quit smoking years ago.. I sure Do Not miss it one bit.. You will feel so much better & food will taste so differant..

**Twisterdog** · 03-30-2009, 10:23 PM

I quit smoking on January 1st of this year, and have not had a puff since. I smoked for twenty years.

And I LOVED to smoke. LOVED it, LOVED cigarettes.

Smoking was one of my favorite things to do. Sad, but true. And I quit. It sounds like an old cliche, but seriously, "If I can do it, anyone can do it."

I agree with Edwina's Secretary about taxes. Other people's children will someday run this world, when we are old and feeble and helpless. Wouldn't you rather they be educated rulers?

Quitting sucks, not going to lie to you. But being a non-smoker? It's wonderful!

**Edwina's Secretary** · 03-30-2009, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by Twisterdog

.

And I LOVED to smoke. LOVED it, LOVED cigarettes.

Smoking was one of my favorite things to do. Sad, but true. And I quit. It sounds like an old cliche, but seriously, "If I can do it, anyone can do it."

Quitting sucks, not going to lie to you. But being a non-smoker? It's wonderful!

I just celebrated ten years tobacco-free. And it was difficult...and painful. Cigarettes were my best friends! It is something I am very, very proud to have finally done.

But being a non-smoker is the very best thing that has EVER happened to me.

However...it is just plain silly to call a tax on tobacco a tax on the poor.

Tobacco is an equal opportunity addiction!

**blue** · 03-30-2009, 11:12 PM

Originally Posted by Edwina's Secretary

However...it is just plain silly to call a tax on tobacco a tax on the poor.

When the majority of smokers are poor it isnt silly.

**Edwina's Secretary** · 03-30-2009, 11:30 PM

Originally Posted by blue

When the majority of smokers are poor it isnt silly.

Do you have a link for that????.....

**blue** · 03-30-2009, 11:33 PM

Originally Posted by Edwina's Secretary

Do you have a link for that????.....

Im sure you have one to prove me wrong so post up.

**pomtzu** · 04-01-2009, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by blue

The POTUS promised he wouldnt raise taxes on the poor, news flash, most smokers and tobacco users are poor!

I just heard something on the evening news that backs this up:

34% of people with an income under $12,000 are smokers. yet only 13% of people with an income over $90,000 are smokers.

Just a little bit of useless info if anyone is interested.......

**Edwina's Secretary** · 04-01-2009, 05:23 PM

Originally Posted by pomtzu

I just heard something on the evening news that backs this up:

34% of people with an income under $12,000 are smokers. yet only 13% of people with an income over $90,000 are smokers.

Just a little bit of useless info if anyone is interested.......

It would be interested to know further coorelation. Are they poor because they smoke or do they smoke because they are poor?

Is it because they cannot afford smoking cessation programs? Stress? Hopelessness?

It is a bit counter-intuitive. It is an expensive habit -- it has been for many, many years. So it would seem to be something that people who cannot afford it would not do.

Are there any other correlations that might help explain it? Education level -- anything like that?

**pomtzu** · 04-01-2009, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by Edwina's Secretary

It would be interested to know further coorelation. Are they poor because they smoke or do they smoke because they are poor?

Is it because they cannot afford smoking cessation programs? Stress? Hopelessness?

It is a bit counter-intuitive. It is an expensive habit -- it has been for many, many years. So it would seem to be something that people who cannot afford it would not do.

Are there any other correlations that might help explain it? Education level -- anything like that?

It really didn't say any more than to give the figures at the end of a discussion of the tobacco tax.
I personally think it's probably a double-edged sword: smoke/poor - poor/smoke.
And I feel that stress and hopelessness play a much bigger role than not being able to afford a cessation program. Also, most people that smoke do so because they enjoy it, and just aren't interested in quitting. Now that prices are getting out of reach for the lower income folks who do, many will do so out of necessity and not because they really want to. I doubt that you'll see much of a drastic decline in the upper income bracket folks who smoke, since money isn't as much of an issue with them. IMO of course!