I am glad I quit smoking.

Cigarettes, that is.

I was up to three packs a day, and I was finally able to quit a couple years back, before all the increases. I would smoke USA Menthol 100s, at about $3 a pack... which now costs about $4.80 by me.

Went to cigars. Backwater brand (honey berry... excellent, highly recommend). But at $9.00? Sure, it'd last me a week or two, but still seemed kinda pricey. My solution?

Pipe. Excellent variety of tobaccos, flavors and aromas... and at $3.00 an ounce, it's rather cheap. For those of you out there who may not know... an ounce of tobacco is actually quite a bit...

Anyway...

Taxes and legislations and everything else they toss at smokers is crap, plain and simple. You mean to tell me, someone who goes to a BAR to get DRUNK and then DRIVE home with a complete stranger for sex is safer then second hand smoke?

I, like many other smokers, were cautious about our smoking; I would never smoke around children, and I never smoke inside a place of residence even when offered. I would smoke in a bar, and maybe the occasional restaurant depending who I was with, or what kind of people (age wise) were sitting near / around me.

But to continuously raise taxes on this? Enough already. The government thinks they'll raise money, but how? This is an incentive to either quit or switch to something else. The gov will not get as much money as they think.

All in all, as pointed out before, all this is... is discrimination against a group of people. We have to go smoke outside in the cold or the rain, because companies do not want to make a show of tolerating a bad habit with a smoke room / shed... I guess the loss of money from sick days justifies those costs as well.

this is just one more reason why the people need to stand up against the govt and there persacution of certain people for no reason other then they dont like what they do. whats next? taxes on my pepsi cause i dont drink coke? this is ridiculous one day the govt is going to wake up with the front lawn of the white house flooded with good citizens pounding on there window.

Wait until when they say coffee is bad for us then they will start charging us about $10 a pound for the cheap stuff to drink. They can take away the smokes but they are not taking away my Coffee. I can live without my occasional smoke in the morning. But not the coffee.

They have a snack tax on junk foods in some states already. I cant wait till they put a candy bar up to $4. Its bad enough in Maine when its $1 for one.

The problem though is wont this make the economy worse? Or did anyone even think about that?

Originally posted by Blaine91555

How much do you make a day? Do you give it to people who earn less than you or keep it?

I earn a modest wage. Yes I give money away to people all the time. MSF, St Vincent de Paul, Matt Talbot, My old church and primary school even though I no longer participate in that religion it was still a great school that does a great job. I also donate to the Cancer Council of NSW. I also help many homeless individuals in my city, I am currently organising a trip to our national capital and I am sponsoring one of these individual into a major chess tournament as this game has helped him recover from years of alcohol abuse. If you are ever in Sydney U2U me and I will gladly introduce you.
Of course I keep some myself, I do this to function within my community. I could work and give it all away sure. But what I do now does not place another burden on the system. I look after myself, the people I love, my family and friends and lots of other when I can afford it, which is logical. Many people depend on me to function.
I point out the difference in complaining about the cost of a bad habit and the reality that others experience in the hope of waking the OP up. You may imply that because I do not act in an extreme moral manner of self impoverishment to justify your criteria of a level of morality or poverty I must attain as some sort of approval for my comment is absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely. We are talking about complaining. One dollar. Smoking. Please.

Ever waste any money on entertainment, have cable TV, the Internet (which is obvious), Magazines, any Hobbies, Ski, Snowboard, Dive or any other unnecessary thing instead of giving your money to others who are less fortunate?

If I did I would have no problem with the cost of these endeavours. I have not complained, once about the costs or complained that the associated costs were some how contrived to destroy my personal freedom and liberty at such a cost that i would be one dollar worse of, and that when contexualised against what some people live on dailey, would relegate my complaining about that one dollar as pathetic.

I understand where you are coming from. I expected irrational responses that attack me personally and that these attacks would some how try to negate my highlighting the obvious distance between the OP's complaint and reality. As smoking is a highly addictive habit and as such, addicts often suffer from stress- hypertension and an agressive often illogic rationale, do you really think your questioning my habits equates to the OP's complaint, and that some how proves a point. Anyway, lets see where my honesty vs your irrational complaining and defending selfish habits take us.


Do you spend money on clothes you don't need, like suits,No. In fact I quit a job like that 10 years ago to take a job for less money that made me infinitely more happier and I could wear what ever I wanted. Which is now normally board shorts and a t-shirt. Yes I look cheap in amongst the suits and ladies in Sydney CBD but who gives a @#$%.

Do you drive a Ford Focus or did you spend money on a vanity item like a mid-size or large car?

No. Second hand from my brother, I ride bicycles everywhere but needed a care to drive my dad around for a while after he got serious clots from stenosis and calcification in his ateries and veins due to diabetes. The car is very useful.

Any Artwork on your walls you bought?

Drawings and a poster made by my nieces and nephews.

Any nick-knacks?

A few.

Do you waste money collecting anything? Do you live in a house larger than you need?

I could be accuse of collecting bicycle as I have a few, but they are all specialized and have different function. One i use to race ironman distance triathlon, another is a hybrid commuter, and the last one a mountain bike with rigid forks and disk brakes that my employer purchased on my behalf so i could fullfill my role with greater efficiency. I am Just buying a studio apparment in centennial park sydney after living with my folks so we could save a really decent deposit. We almost bought a house a year and a half ago but luckily pulled out and just kept saving while people when nuts with loans and overpriced property. Lucky really.

Remember, you only need a couple of hundred square feet per person.

I know. I will be living in under 100 sq feet.

Got a large yard that wastes land?

No.

Do you own any jewelry?

A watch. A pair of cuff links from my uncle.

Have any pets to feed?

No.

Do you ever drive anywhere for pleasure and waste money on gas?

No.

Ever take a vacation?

Yes.

All of these things are a waste of money just like cigarettes.

No they are not. Not even close. None of the above even come close to the damage smoking does. A watch tells me the time it has a function, i do not wear it as a habit, people are not disgusted by my watch, people ask me for the time, not how much time I waste when I need a smoke. A car enables me to serve many, many community, social and family needs as well as enable activities of daily living, smoking does none of these.
Where I live provides safety both physically and mentally, besides the personal economic benefits of investing in a property for the future it also enables me to function more efficiently and purposefully within my community by providing me a place to keep food and clothes, to keep clean and healthy, to sleep, etc. I can also extend this luxury to others. Smoking does none of that, the only thing that I can extend to others by smoking is disfunction via addiction and disease.
When I take a vacation i meet new people, learn new things, I share some of the personal wealth i have earnt by moving to a new location and spending that wealth by engaging the services and buisnesses of others where and when i choose to vacation. There is also the exchange of cultural differences, attitudes and characteristics that add to lifes infinite tapestry. I can then bring these new attitudes, differences and characteristic back to my own community to share.
Smoking only adds addiction, waste, disease. Smoking is an exchange between the product and the addict only. Only the buisness of smoking enjoys the benefits of others hard earned wealth, those that unfortunately are addicted to that very product.

Got a log in your eye? Does it hurt?

No. Not until you find the bit where: I whine and complain about how much it costs me to partake in an activity that is blatantly stupid, destructive and scientifically and universall acknowledge as severly unhealthy. Not until then. Find the part where: me being a dollar worse of inspires my whining and complaining. Find the part where: I fail to see that if i quit the activity that sees me a dollar worse of I would be infinitly better off through a vast number of ways, health wise, financially.

What a ridiculous ongoing debate

Cigarettes cost the Tax payer NOTHING

The Medical Industry does...

Okay?

Doctors Can Not save an unhealthy persons life...Ever, if they could I'd have a non smoking life expectancy of 150-250 years or more

But they can't actually do smack... not until now iwth genetic engineering and stem cells...

and If you haven't noticed the general public gets Squat from genetic engineering a stem cells, it's all anti g-d or some dumb crap so that they can treat you and absorb ALL your money before you die...

Wake up!

Fat... a Smoker, stop falling victim to them turning you on each other, smoking, yah...sure you'll maybe get Cancer...

The BBQ gives you Cancer, the paint does, the Toy you sucked on as a kid probably already did you in... years AGO

Walk down the street, hundreds of chemicals...

Your all going to DIE

and from whatever the Cause

THEY WILL, Keep you in the hospital and artificially prolong your miserable existence so you have NOTHING left for your friends and family when you die

Smoking doesn't make the Medical costs

Keeping you on tubes and colostomy bags until you Die for half a Decade does

Keep buying into the bs though all.... it helps, fight amongst yourselves... when it's your turn to die and your throwing away the 400 G you saved for kids on a deductible... just to gain an extra 90 days in which you will be in pain on a bed and your kids will emotionally rot inside and start to WISH you would just die already

You too at that time can croak a broke burden on a devastated family so the system can TAKE ALL YOUR MONEY

If I fell and split my head on the sidewalk... someone would blame the massive expensive of sidewalks and the fact that I was walking it's all "personal responsibility" Cancer isn't a disease or an accident...noooo your accountable, your family must pay...

So if I split my head walking, when they ban shoe laces don't blame me for the cost or my action of walking, after all I'll be spending the next decade in a Coma on an IV costing 50,000 a month to the State or whatever...

But they will never let me die lol, not until every last penny is gone...

This country was not based on taxing SIN. LEARN, please, ask your grandparents. Learn. Sin Tax is a slippery slope. What is sin tomorrow? 1984 before your eyes. Buy the book - read it, 1984 is now.

just one question....
and think it out before you try to answer please....

you have an outrageous number of people uninsured, underinsured, doing their best to ignore their health problems, doing thier jobs in pain!!!

they can't afford adequate medical care!!

I know recognize that ensuring the the children have adequate medical care is a noble venture......but....

just where in the constitution does it give the government the right to take money...that they could possibly use to see a doctor and get treatment for those pains.....from those uninsured, underinsured, UNTREATED, people, just so they can turn around and give that money to someone they feel is more deserving the medical treatment ???

there's electronic cigs now, they don't burn anything, there's no smoke, just a vapor, and well, their only drawback is that they are made in china, so, who knows about their safety....

as far as I am concerned, this tax is uncontitutional, heck, it's based on a principle that is unconstitutional, and I am not gonna pay it!! I'll vap, I'll grow my own tobacco, but well......let the liberal elite pay for their own danged social programs if they want them....I ain't!!!

I'd encourage every other smoker to find an alternative! heck, what ya all say that on april 1st, when this tax becomes law, we all hit the no-smoking resturants with our little electronic cigs and well...let them all know...

WE AIN'T PAYING FOR IT!! So, I guess everyone will be....how do you like your new socialist program now????

ten to one, they won't like it as much, once they get the idea in their heads that they will be paying for it also!!!

You know I am a smoker and I pay a heck of a high Insurance. But many people don't wish to pay for insurance, instead they spend their money on other things. And some can't afford it, but it is not for you or me or anyone to tell anyone how to live or what to spend their money on.Maybe you should spend more time getting welfare and disability dudes a job. If the blind can work I think they can. Then maybe if illegals had to pay something, and most important, The higher ups, like all the frigging Deans we have in highschools now, weren't pulling the salaries they do to do as little as possible. And my gosh, I used to work for the state of NY, you have no idea how many job item numbers are kept even if they are never filled or left or whatever, but the money is collected for it- and included in the budget, I can't even begin to imagine this on a federal level, yet instead of some basic bookkeeping you would rather tax tax and prosecute innocent tax payers.

Dude. Think about it.

Think Boston Tea Party, or think about moving to england?