Opinion
Cig tax unnecessary, unfair, unwanted
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Also by Max Manasevit:
- Why bailout newspapers if no one actually reads them? (October 4, 2009)
- Monthlong recess only assists H1N1 (September 24, 2009)
- Consider other tuition structure (April 16, 2009)
- CAN's 'activism' ill-advised, silly (March 24, 2009)
- Cig tax unnecessary, unfair, unwanted (February 26, 2009)
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Recently, I was huddled outside in a frozen circle of smoke where my brothers in public contempt began discussing a caveat in the new
I understand cigarettes have a negative stigma. But if they are so terrible, then ban them, or at least place the same tax on other killers like fast food, sports cars and any cable package that carries MTV 2 (which is killing the soul of
I am not opposed to all anti-tobacco measures. Second-hand smoke could lead to serious medical conditions for those exposed to it. The price of squares, however, is of no concern to anyone except the smokers themselves. Due to the county ban on indoor smoking, the only place smokers may light up is in their private residences and outside, meaning second-hand smoke is no longer an issue.
Anti-smoking sympathizers should stop hailing the governor’s choice to raise the cigarette tax as some great change for good and call it what it really is — a way to further marginalize the smoking minority while simultaneously seizing the perceived moral high ground because this state has more non-smokers than smokers.
The moral police running this country get irrationally crazed because cigarettes may kill the individual smoker, while the same hysteria seem to disappear when considering taxing gas guzzling SUVs that will eventually kill everybody, if only for the reason there are more soccer moms than cigarette smokers. Does it not seem ridiculous politicians view Joe Camel as threatening more people than the deterioration of the ozone and the possible extinction of life on the planet earth?
Why must 20 cylindrical objects be the sole deadly commodity that goes up in price when times get rough economically? Heart disease will soon replace tobacco as the leading cause of death in this country, so where are the high taxes, public service announcements and mass-protests for my super-sized Big Mac meal?
The tobacco companies should no longer be this country’s recessionary punching bag. If liberty is the value that guides this country, then tobacco should be treated like any other marketable commodity and prices should be set by the market and not by “ethical” principals. If safety and the nanny state is what Americans want, then tobacco should be banned so we can be saved from ourselves. To allow big tobacco to exist for the purpose of bailing us out of recessions, while constantly berating smokers and calling the act evil and sinful, is hypocrisy at best, and at worst passive killing for greed’s sake.
Smokers in
Groups such as Smoke Free Wisconsin (who was euphoric about the tax increase), must cease their attempts to undermine personal freedom by pushing their views onto the entire population. Anti-smoking groups are totalitarian in outlook, attempting to control the habits of the individual for no reason beside the fact that they find it distasteful. Such views are the antithesis of the doctrine of personal freedom, which the founding fathers used as the basis of this country. The
Max Manasevit (manasevit@wisc.edu) is a freshman majoring in philosophy.
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IP hash: 07028cd4
First: I don’t mind paying a premium for sins (gambling, tobacco, porn, alcohol, marijuana, plastic surgery (see, vanity), etc; just keep the sins in the realm of choice, not restriction).
Second: How stupid are you? I look at smokers as if they have smoldering leprosy-covered HIV herpes in their mouth. Instead of a monetary tax, I think male smokers should pay their due to society in the form of a solid kick to the scrotum from anyone who has to smell your billowing disaffected emo smoke signal.
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Boo friggin’ hoo
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Income taxes are also “unnessary, unfar, unwanted”! I don’t like sales taes either.
Tobbaco is a nasty, smelly addiction with no redeeming qualities. Taxing it out of existance is a win-win.
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Smoking related Medicaid costs in Wisconsin are nearly $500 million. Do you know someone else who should be footing the bill?
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I’m all for an obesity tax as you jokingly proposed- the proportion of healthcare dollars spent on obesity related problems is enormous. Is it unfair that smokers have to pay significant tax on cigarettes? Probably. Is it more unfair that non-smokers have to pay for the healthcare of smokers? Definitely. Your idea that “smokers just die” cannot be supported by hard data- I wish it could because it would support my case for increased premiums for the obese. Nice try, better luck next time.
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Might I suggest using spell check for the headline?
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Best article I have read in a long time. Don’t listen to the haters. What’s important is that you have your voice heard. Goddam fascists
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Whoa there, if we could get more people smoking it would save Social Security since those people would die much sooner and therefore collect less.
Once we have socialized medicine I’m sure that the treatment of smokers and smoking related diseases can easily be de-emphasized. Old people in general will left untreated for many things but smokers will go direct to the hospice - do not pass go, do not cost society a huge amount of money to treat your final illness.
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Fuck yes…protect the smoking elite!
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First they taxed the smokers, then the “rich”, it’s inevitable that “fat” will be taxed - but the definition of “fat” will be in the hands of politicians, so look out.
But since we are living in an age where some meaningful percentage of people believe that everybody else ought to pay their mortgage, then it is a short leap to the make your fat my business. Anyway, if President Obama’s stated ambition to extract national savings from the health care is going to make any headway at all, everybody’s fat will be everybody’s business sooner or later regardless of the privacy considerations. Indeed, this obvious conflict between Democratic constituencies (people who want to make one person’s health “society’s” business and trial lawyers who want to collect a vig for any offense to “privacy” or dignity) will no doubt resolve itself in some way that is more expensive for normally sized taxpayers everywhere.
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2009/02/public-and-private-fat.html
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First of all, I thought that this was a very well written article. It was thought provoking and entertaining. Second, I agree with what you have to say. It is unfair that smokers are being targeted. Whether I choose to smoke or not, I do not need the government or others telling me what to do. It is my life, my body. Thank you!
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I say, the only problem with cigarettes is that they do not end the life of the person who smokes quickly enough, like before they can reproduce. Why ban anything, when we can turn a buck off of the stupidity of others. Make em expensive and deadlier!
IP hash: 3d366324
Dumbass, the only reason the government taxes cigarettes so highly is purely economic. Cigarettes, are an addictive substance. So the government can raise the tax, and you can bitch all you want, but you will still keep buying the more expensive cigs. They don’t care what you think is fair, because the only way to truly protest is by not by cigarettes, but you can’t do that. Welcome to a life where you are dependent on a resource someone else controls
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MTV2 at least plays music so dont go there, Oprah
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You compare your addiction to a RELIGION? Nope, sorry - cigarette smokers as a group should NOT have the same rights as religious or political entities. You should be forced to pay the externalities of your nasty addiction - why should I have to subsidize the health care costs of people who are knowingly killing themselves? It’s like paying for a liver transplant for an alcoholic. Um, no.
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1) I’m a smoker. 2) What I saw in jail, where people traded food for a cigarette… well you can ask any jail guard, or convict. You think taxes can get rid of a smoker’s craving? Food! 3) What is this… but a form of social engineering! We are being, and have been, divided and conquered. You didn’t watch my rights to be who I want to be… but it will be my turn to watch you lose yours one day.
Divided ps.. when I read the smoking nazi crap on this board… I don’t want to be in any health care plan they are in. (It was a hot issue back in the HillaryCare days too.) I feel no reason to pay for people who get hurt on a skateboard, or in a bicycle accident… or even those who can’t drive a car well enough to stay out of the Emergency room. If you want Universal Healthcare… you better start accepting the universal activities of people in general.
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I remember the days of being one country, one nation… with freedom of speech, freedom to enjoy life, and the freedom of choice to do whatever you wanted. Today, we are so divided, not by just color, religion, or choice, but by ideas, and the mast teaching by a media world. Yes, I said MEDIA WORLD…. in days of old, there was not that many TVs and channels to watch, we just enjoyed life, enjoyed family and friends. Isn’t it strange, that a government that “supplied” cigarettes to our soldiers is now reaping the profits of high taxes.
It was our government that took so long to come out with the truth about “second-hand-smoke”, which is still being questioned today to it direct connection with cancer.
I agree, and it does not matter if I smoke or not, with this person’s opinion about government racking the smokers over hot coals with HIGHER TAXES, it’s really simple, it’s unfair.
Open your eyes people, stop fighting among yourselves, see what the government is really interested in, “MONEY”, not you, and not your health that is for sure.
“MONEY”, “MONEY”, “MONEY” and more “MONEY”……. this is the “CHANGE” everyone voted for, now enjoy your “CHANGE”.
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More spending money for our government >>>>> isn’t it funny yet. Years ago, there was a “TEA PARTY” and everyone was invited, I just wonder who is invited this time, smokers or non-smokers, or just all Americans.
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Thats okay I geuss like someone else I seen on a news report say “when someone tells me to put my cigareette out I’ll just say NO! I’m doing it for the kids” Our good president setup with his political promisses to build a childrens hospitol and he’s going to do it off the smokers funds. LMAO I think the whole thing boils down to we have to many panty waste people running this cuntry that want to take the easy road rather than the right road. Incase you haven’t figured it out I am a smoker and the whole cigareete tax sucks great big green donkey dicks and so do those panty waste people running the country.