Home More advice Politics & Law
During the campaign and even as president, Obama has promised not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000 - The tobacco tax increase went into effect yesterday, raising the tobacco tax nearly 62 cents on a pack of cigarettes - Which class does this affect the most: A) upper B) middle C) poor ?
Sorry dude, the statistics I read contradict your claim.
The average lifetime health care costs of smokers are less than non-smokers.
Smokers are more likely to die after their first major (cancer, stroke, heart attack) medical incident while non-smokers usually survive and continue running up expenses. I am glad that you mom beat the odds and survived.
Moreover smokers tend to die younger than non-smokers so they are less of a burden on social security and Medicare.
If we look at this purely from a financial point of view smokers are doing the rest of us a favor by dying before they draw as much retirement and health care as non-smokers.
I have read that the high taxes we have on cigarettes has had an effect on the number of kids smoking but not on people already addicted to nicotine.
There are other societal costs to smoking. Smokers are generally less productive workers than non-smokers because of their frequent cigarette breaks and much more sick leave.
To my sense of fairness increasing tobacco taxes is hard to justify unless we use the the proceeds for tobacco avoidance cessation programs.
:) The "smoking" class is who it impacts...when you add up the health car costs with long term smoking (my mom's hospital bills were WAY more money than the lifetime spend on cigarrettes, and she smoked for decades)...it only makes sense to try to offset those hospital bills with some kind of tax.
if smokers weren't using more than their 'fair share' of health insurance, doctors, hospitals, etc, then it wouldn't make sense to tax it further.
*** During the campaign and even as president, Obama has promised not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000
Taxes will be going up in 2011. Obama has made it clear he does not plan to stop that.
When you pay more taxes, we call that a tax increase. Obama is lying we he says he will not raise taxes on those under $250,000.
Freefromself, eating is something we all need to do to survive. Cigarettes, used as intended, do nothing but destroy people's health and lives. I think there is a big difference. If the tax will get some people to stop smoking and ultimately save a few lives, it is more than worth it.
B.) Middle C.) Poor
There is the correct answer.
Also Dude and Utopia, Obesity Is number one on the list today as far as health care costs. -diabetes -heart disease -muscle/joint pain -knee / ankle damage
Should we start charging a fat tax?
I know, filletofspam, that was just an example from my mom's experience when she finally stopped smoking after she had an almost, but not quite, stroke.
Which class does this affect the most: A) upper B) middle C) poor ?
D) smokers
Yes, dude. Excellent response, now lets see if you get a reply.
Thank you dude for a spot on answer.
