This thread is addressing a number of different topics related to cigarette smoking and I have to brake them out in order to comment directly..... as well as the fact that any two page post gets boring and unread. I don’t intend to speak on the merits of smoking because there are none. But there ARE a number of horrendous abuses of people that smoke taking place. Pure and simple GREED of an easy target is what is happening from a cost standpoint. Like the prep school kid starting through the ghetto allies at dusk, the vulture have swooped in for easy pickings.

When I started smoking, you had a cigarette vending machine around every turn. From ever bus station to church basements and in the waiting rooms of hospitals. For a quarter, ($0.25) you got a pack of smokes, AND... inside the cellophane wrapper was one, two or three pennies along the edge of the pack as your change from the two-bits coin. So $4.25+ makes me cringe every time.

“Sin Tax” is the same as “Rape Shame”. If they point a finger at you and say how evil you are, to justify their immoral pillage, it’s suppose to humiliate you into surrender and acceptance. In the past decade, Cleveland built two new MULTI million dollar sport stadiums. After every orchestrated special-interest and political campaign couldn’t justify the costs, (BEFORE the cost overruns), they “edicted” (not by legal vote of the people) a sin tax on cigarettes and liquor. After they were built, the folks that were paying this tax were told there is NO SMOKING in these facilities. Of course you could drink........ if you purchase a $6.00 cup of beer from them. (NO. You’re not allowed to bring any in, silly.)

Now try to find accounting records that show how much of the tax goes directly to paying off the construction cost. It’s entirely another source of revenue from a source with little ability to resist. It’s pure and simple legal stealing.

You may find this link interesting regarding some of the Tobacco Taxes and Payments and State Settlements.

http://www.rjrt.com/TI/tobacco_cover.asp



Next Installment- Ethnocentric Exclusivity

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