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Cigarette Taxes are one thing but ELEVEN dollars a pack?!

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posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 09:07 PM
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reply to post by UMayBRite!
 
Exploitation of smokers is a very good way of terming it. Thank you. That fits as well as anything that's been said about the outrageous level of taxes.



posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 09:12 PM
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reply to post by lothran
 


I ABSOLUTELY LOVE people who decide that they know what is best for smokers and what they think is best is that smokers simply not spend their money on something they find pleasureable!

How about those people who take vacations to foreign countries. They are risking diseases, crimes and accidents. We should help these people save money and double the cost on foreign travel. That way they could reduce their risk of disease, save some health care costs and help these people save money for what is really important (like helping the government out of death).

Who else but an anti-smoker would decide that someone SHOULDN'T spend their own money on the things that they find pleasurable?

Want to spend $25,000 on your hobby cars? OK but don't spend it on smoking cause that would be a waste!

Want to buy a boat so you can go fishing with your buddies once a year? All right but don't waste your money on smoking!

Want to pay money to slide down mountains on two waxed wooden sticks? Hey I want to do that too - its far less wasteful than smoking!

Why should the things that smokers find pleasurable be considered "wasted" money when everyone else gets to spend their money they way that they want?

Give me a break! Come on anti-smokers - the least you can do is buy a carton or two - remember, its for the children! I thought you cared about them!

Tired of Control Freaks



posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 09:13 PM
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reply to post by Wrabbit2000
 


Hey Silly Wrabbit, do you have any gardening skills?
Do you know what I'm trying to infer to you?

Very similar to this, Heaven is like a Mustard Seed...
The smallest of seeds when planted can create the greatest multitude of all.

Enjoy curing the "grain" from the "chaff".




posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 09:32 PM
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name brand cigs are $40-45 a carton in missouri.

definitely room for profits.



posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 09:34 PM
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reply to post by Wrabbit2000
 


Price of packet of cigarettes in australia is twice that, US stil has it way easy compared to rest of world when it comes to consumer products.



posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 11:05 PM
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reply to post by Wrabbit2000
 


I know this has been said. But this really isn't anything to shout about. These are the prices a lot of the rest of the western world have to deal with... actually, for quite some time. And soon the fuel prices will go up to match the rest of the world too... and I guess Obama will get the blame for that one. America is a really cheap place to live, but it's got to level out with the rest of the world someday, and it has to happen soon.



posted on Mar, 1 2013 @ 11:42 PM
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I pay $11 bucks for a pound of tobacco and $4 bucks for 2 cartons of tubes, that's $15 bucks for 400 cigarettes and they taste great with no additives, and the bags are sealed ziplocks you can keep in your freezer for years without going stale
....best brand out there is largo gold



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 12:12 AM
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Originally posted by wewillnotcomply666


Correct me if I am wrong. The average wage for an adult in Australia is $16.00 to $20.00 an hour. We have too many people here making around $10.00 an hour. This is a tax against poor people. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you Aussies make a living wage, but this is not an apples to apples situation.

So you think cigarettes should cost more to people that earn more? How is that fair?
Yes i agree it is a tax against poor people but when your only payin like 7 dollars average for a pack , get over it . I heard one member say something about a pack for a dolla something??!! wtf ??!!


you make the point about apples and oranges when comparing US/Canadian cigarette prices to Australian prices. yet at the same time you are blown away by about $1.35/pack. it IS the same thing. i am currently NOT in a first world nation where wages are high. for example in Canada $10/hour is a low wage that is not easily survivable, from what i saw Australia has even higher wages, which was you point about why smoke prices are higher in Australia. i probably messed with your head a bit by converting local currency to the Canadian/American (they are so close lately lol) dollar. now for me from North America that $1.35/pack is EXTREMELY cheap. but for the citizens here i assure you IT IS NOT. just like with Australia compared to Canada/US pay rates the pay rate IS MUCH LOWER here. so yes a pack of smokes is worth $1.35 but at the same time people ONLY MAKE say $25/WEEK. i bet that is actually a HIGHER percentage of wages compared to cigarette costs, than most places. no wonder they sell 10 packs and even SINGLE cigarettes here.

and YES they are doing the SAME tax to make you quit BS here as well. before the new year it was ONLY about $1/pack that was a 35% increase overnight all in the name of saying they want people to quit, yet the reality seems to be just taking more money from people who can't afford it. and yet again i heard that it was also about the paying for the added health care costs for smokers. what is amusing about that is that YOU PAY for your HOSPITAL stay doctors etc. heck they won't even release you from the hospital till your bill is payed. so how does charging more for added healthcare work
it 's just all about more revenue for governments.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 12:36 AM
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Originally posted by ellbell
No sympathy.. if you are struggling with a low income and high taxes..WHY THE HELL WASTE IT ON SMOKES... your pretty much burning your money away


in some ways i agree. the thing is that MOST people start at a young age when MONEY doesn't have the meaning it does later in life. a time where generally your parents provide most stuff and YOUR money is free to be spent on frivolous things like cloths, smokes, or whatever. at that point even say $10/pack in Canada doesn't seem all that bad. THAT is the HOOK, they get you started then which tends to mean that once you GET to the point of money being a huge issue, it is too late you are HOOKED. in a lot of ways i wish i never listened to my teachers and started smoking. :shk:

unfortunately i AM like many others ADDICTED to the dammed things. sure there seems to be a small percentage of people who find it easy to quit, but for most of us quitting is a dream we are not likely to see come true. i don't know HOW MANY TIMES i have tried to quit and had it fail. hell even HAVING NO INCOME at all, i was not able to quit. i NEEDED my FIX. so what do you do when you have no cash but need a smoke? you bum a few, you beg a few dollars to buy cigarette tubes, then re-roll your cigarette butts, when you run out of cigarette butts, you pick them up of the street, when you run out of cigarette tubes you make a pipe to smoke the tobacco, even trying to re-use your old filters on it to try to stay as safe as you can. when you get your hands on money CIGARETTES COME FIRST, even FOOD is second place, because you NEED the SMOKE.

then there are those who struggle and win the fight of quitting. THEY face a hard life afterwords. you see apparently you will ALWAYS have that CRAVING. i know several people who quit for MORE than FIVE YEARS, yet they broke down and started again as they could no longer deal with the cravings. my friend's mother quit FIFTY YEARS AGO, she told me SHE STILL has to fight those CRAVINGS. just think 50 years smoke free yet you STILL are fighting to stay smoke free. so much better never to start, but they get you young when you are invincible, some think they will be able to quit whenever they like. basically we are SCAMMED into smoking. and once you start it OWNS YOU for the rest of your days. once you smoke for a small while there is not really a choice about it, you are HOOKED. to a smoker it is NOT a waste of money it is a NECESSITY.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 01:04 AM
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So the municipalities needed to find a new money source since the big banks foreclosed on lots of people and kicked them out and now there's no property taxes being paid on those places; (the banks are supposed to pick up the taxes but mostly they don't).

And now they'll need to send the police force out to control the tobacco runners and there will spring up gang warfare over black market tobacco supplies, and they'll need to build more prisons to house the 'criminals' who god forbid are running cigarettes from S. Carolina up to NYC and Chicago without paying for a tax stamp.

And we'll all have to pay for the prisons to be built, and the holier-than-thou cops to be paid for (at least the pot smokers might catch a break now).

Great governmental financial planning at its best.

Meanwhile, no overseas bases are being closed because 'they hate us for our freedums' and the Pentagon is God.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 01:38 AM
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Taxes, Regulations and laws are what makes us a 1st world nation, If you want no regulations or laws you should go to Somalia or Nigeria. You'll find plenty of 10 year old kids enjoying their "freedom" of being able to smoke and adults being able to smoke around pregnant women and children.

You should read up on other industrialized nations they have regulations, taxes and laws too.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 02:15 AM
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reply to post by Wrabbit2000
 


thieves. plain & simple.

there is no need for any more taxes.. just break the CAFR double entry booking practices..

its clear now when you look back over the years that the government co-oped organized crime schemes into their fake fiat irs tax scam pretending to be an honorable democratic republic.

time to end the fake debt based money the untouchable off the books CAFR billions stashed across the nation into jimmy hoffa trade union scam style accounts while crying to the public more taxes are needed or services will be cut.

scam, scam, scam..



edit on 2-3-2013 by reeferman because: sticky wwww key



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 02:27 AM
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I got fed up a little more than a year ago with paying 8-12 dollars a pack here in Canada, and you know what I did? Something completely crazy and by all accounts a drastic measure - I quit. One day I decided that enough is enough and just stopped.

Everybody goes on and on about how terribly difficult it is to quit. I call bull#, you might find that it's a lot easier than you expected.

Occasionally, just occasionally, I'll enjoy a cigar or some pipe tobacco, but even that's only once every few months. I could never see myself going back to cigarette smoking.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 02:36 AM
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Originally posted by generik

unfortunately i AM like many others ADDICTED to the dammed things. sure there seems to be a small percentage of people who find it easy to quit, but for most of us quitting is a dream we are not likely to see come true. i don't know HOW MANY TIMES i have tried to quit and had it fail. hell even HAVING NO INCOME at all, i was not able to quit. i NEEDED my FIX. so what do you do when you have no cash but need a smoke? you bum a few, you beg a few dollars to buy cigarette tubes, then re-roll your cigarette butts, when you run out of cigarette butts, you pick them up of the street, when you run out of cigarette tubes you make a pipe to smoke the tobacco, even trying to re-use your old filters on it to try to stay as safe as you can. when you get your hands on money CIGARETTES COME FIRST, even FOOD is second place, because you NEED the SMOKE.


I don't want to seem callous, but to be perfectly frank, if you really wanted to quit, you would. Full stop. I struggled with quitting for years, started smoking at 13 and attempted to quit several times between then and age 25. In the end, it really was as simple as just not wanting to suck cancerous tar and other # into my lungs any more.

It's also absurd to suggest that just because you're hooked to the cigs, suddenly it becomes one of life's necessities. It's really not. That craving you feel for a cigarette is a want, not a need. This becomes especially true when kids come into the picture. If, as a parent, you even consider weighing your 'need' for tobacco for your lungs and your child's legitimate need for food in his or her belly, then you're not a fit parent.

If you ignore that craving for a cigarette for long enough, suddenly you'll find that you don't want it any more. The same can't be said for food, if you ignore a craving for food for long enough you'd end up looking like a Holocaust victim and die.
edit on 3/2/2013 by Monger because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 02:49 AM
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Originally posted by AmberLeaf

Originally posted by superman2012
reply to post by Wrabbit2000
 


In Canada, in my opinion, the thinking is that higher taxes on smokes are justified by the average smoker needing medical services because of smoking. Once you don't have smokers, you will have lower numbers of smoking related diseases coming into the hospitals.

In a perfect world at least.

In our world, they will probably find something else that is unhealthy and tax the bejeebus out of it...they better leave my steaks alone!


Both my grandparnets have smoked since 15 years old, they are both in their late 80, with NO cancer of anykind or any other medical condition that could be attributed to smoking.
I know smoking isnt great for our bodies, but evidence kind of suggests that not everyone is effected in the same why by smoking. Some people get cancer, others dont. Could it be, its not the smoking giving everyone cancer? Could it be its just a huge cashcow with many many different parts of the business?

OR it could be that the tobacco people used to smoke wasnt filled with as many harmful drugs/poisons and chemicals to keep them burning. My grandad smokes roll ups, has done for over 70 years, he hasnt even got a smokers cough lol.

Its like all these anti smoking aids, whats the point? They are equally as expensive, and dont break the habit...they just make you feel better because you can say "i gave up smoking", you will be hooked on them as long as you would have been hooked to the real thing.(Thats not pointed at you, just a general comment)



Bit off topic but couldn't resist the conspiracy going on here..... the cancer is caused by the filters on the cigs and the with chemicals treated paper. My father died at 72 ... not of cancer, he rolled his tabacco with very thin "natural" papers.

Did you know that the first cigarette filters were stuffed with asbestos...?

EDIT: Everything I wrote is mostly IMHO... unfortunately I have no hard evidence.


edit on 2/3/2013 by zatara because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 03:56 AM
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Roll your own or use those electronic cigarettes... or quit? But I do agree, if taxes went up to $11.00 a beer there would be an outrage. Just think, 50 years ago the same doctors telling you now to take all these vaccines were telling you to smoke 2 packs a day.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 04:27 AM
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Originally posted by AmberLeaf

Originally posted by dc4lifeskater
quit smoking or grow ur own tobacco.


How? Tobacco is legal because...its not viable for the normal person to grow it, [SNIP]
I wouldnt be able to grow enough tobacco to sustain my habit, and the big business and governments know this.
A plant yields about 35g, and takes 4-5 months to cultivate.
edit on 1-3-2013 by elevatedone because: (no reason given)

So you would need 2 crops of 26 plants a year to sustain a your habit if you smoked 35g a week.. doable.
edit on 2-3-2013 by bigdohbeatdown because: (no reason given)



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 05:47 AM
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reply to post by Idonthaveabeard
 

Ridiculous, isn't it? $10.00-$11.00 is the average price in NY. I live close enough to the PA border to cross over for smokes, which are roughly half the price there.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 06:32 AM
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reply to post by Wrabbit2000
 


Here in the UK a pack of 20 is £8, which is $12.

I smoke rolling tobacco, I hope i can give up soon.


QV.



posted on Mar, 2 2013 @ 06:39 AM
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Hospitals are the biggest rip off in the history of history. They generate lies along with the pharmeceutical comapnies to fleece the public of their hard earned money. Cigarrette taxes are an unfair burden. I personally started smoking at age 17, and since the 90's watched prices go from 2.50 a pack to 6.00 a pack in a little over ten years. Firstly it costs them pennies per ciggarrette to produce. Secondly these anti-smoking propagandists are lobbying to be americas thron in the smokers side. I smoke because I enjoy it. It relaxes me and gives me time to think and mull over things in life. Plus it sometimes relieves stress. States should stop stealing from the populace to give to hospitals who have tons of money from imprisoning people in their 1000-3000$/day psych wards and other medical stuff they do.



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