Wow! Why do people put up with this? Smokers have already been banned from private businesses, taxed to hell, and now taxed into poverty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/ny...l?ref=nyregion

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http://www.fairtax.org

Elminate all taxes on income and replace with a national sales tax.

We smokers "put up with it" because we're powerless to do anything about it - don't forget, smokers are in quite the minority these days. Actually, we aren't powerless... we can always quit smoking.

My wife and I have set our quit date: July 16.

I go through a carton a week, and these things aren't gettin' any cheaper. Aside from the obvious health impacts to quitting, the impact to my wallet will be significant, as well...

How dumb does it get, an increased sin tax on a declining sin in most instances practiced by people who can least afford that tax.

Heavon forbid, they're using taxes to affect social/economic decision making. This is unprecedented!

What always astounds me is when taxes are increased on things like cigarettes in order to pay for new "programs". When people start quitting, though (as "society" would seem to prefer), the money for those programs will go away.

Politicians are loathe to do away with beneficial programs, not wanting to be seen as "uncaring", so they're forced to keep them. Unfortunately, with less money coming in from the cigarettes that were originally supposed to pay for those programs, the money will have to come from somewhere. And where will it come from?

Non-smokers...

HArdly, smokers make up 20-25% of the populace. Thats a pretty significant voting block. Not to mention you have a lot of people like me who dont support targeting behavior with taxes.

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http://www.fairtax.org

Elminate all taxes on income and replace with a national sales tax.

So? What are we supposed to do about the cig tax increase? The easiest answer is to quit smoking. At least in this case, there is an easy answer - unlike, say, the price of gasoline (also an extremely addictive product). The price of gas keeps going up, everyone keeps bitching about it - and they keep buying it. So I ask you: "Wow! Why do people put up with this?". Why do we put up with anything?

Because the government says its protecting them from everything and in their insecure little minds many believe it.

8$ a pack?!!!!!

Force me outside to smoke in the rain, give me mean looks if you must..but eight stinking dollars for a pack?!

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MESMERISM, n. Hypnotism before it wore good clothes, kept a carriage and asked Incredulity to dinner. - Ambrose Bierce

I'd imagine that funding measures like this will roll back on their own to prevent too many people from quitting. The idea behind sin taxes is to walk a fine line between the illusion of "doing something" and not actually doing anything. If you increase the price incrementally, the extortion factor of forcing addicts to pay more works well and the revenue can help fund various programs. If you shear the sheep too closely though (large incremental raises that actually discourage the behavior), revenue will decrease because the number of addicts will decrease more than is offset by the price increase. My guess is that, when this happens, taxes like this will be rolled back to generate revenue (but with politicians suddenly flip-flopping and claiming that previous taxes were unfair or taxes on the poor).

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the anti-smoking hysteria is at or near its high water mark, and that in 20 years, it will be tolerated/legal in many more places than it is right now. It's easy to enjoy not having to smell cigarettes in a vacuum, but I'd imagine most people, if asked, wouldn't want their property taxes increased by 50% to offset the revenue that their nanny-stating has wiped out.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Another thing is that you'll probably start seeing a black market for cigarettes in places like New York. I'd imagine I could make a killing by rolling cigarettes en masse there and selling them for double what it cost me to make them (which would still probably only amount to a buck or two per pack). As an added bonus, I could infuse them with double or triple the nicotine to ensure maximum addiction and without the annoyance of federal regulation. And, I'd be willing to bet the penalty for that is a veritable slap on the wrist compared to more risky ventures like drugs or piracy.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

I don't know if this is still applicable, but you can probably buy them online from other countries for a fraction of the price. Cigarettes in my area aren't far behind (currently about $7 per pack), but I still manage to get them, generally speaking, for around $3.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

I was still living in NYC when they implemented the $1.00/pack city tax. There were suddenly a LOT of bootleggers bringing cases of cigs in to the city. Convenience stores were getting busted if they got caught selling cigs with an out of state tax stamp on the bottom of the pack. I also remember a few months when you would see guys standing on the street corners peddling cheap packs of Marlboro reds.

I did go online for a while, I think it was "cheapcigs.com" or something similar - I think they were based in Kentucky. That lasted a little while, until they got busted for not charging taxes. I think they have since found a way around it, but now that I'm back in Connecticut, I just go to the store and buy them like normal people.

That adds up... I figured with all the bootlegging you see in NYC, not nearly as many people as they think are paying the tax. And, every time they do something like this, it serves only to encourage a black market. So, you'll have a situation where they increase the tax on cigarettes, see a loss of revenue for doing it, and then go even further in the red by ramping up the spending in order to bust people who are avoiding their tax. The hope being that if they can force people into their extortion, sooner or later, they'll be back in the black.

Don't you love it when politicians implement policies where everyone loses and effectively convince people that everyone wins?

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson