Rising cost of taking a puff

[bobdole369]

I'm about to try to quit again. Probably sometime in July.

Good for you boomer. I'm glad you have the right attitude. It isn't very hard either. In fact its one thing where all you really have to do is nothing at all!

How many times have you quit by using some product or another? How many times have you quit cold turkey? Addiction is a bitch, even now - as a "pro" quitter of 6 months time I have cravings. They never go away, but they do get easier to put down. Its more like the craving for a good steak now.

It takes 3 days of fairly bad suckage and you are pretty much done with physical stuff. Now its all mental.

 

[dank69]

Good for you boomer. I'm glad you have the right attitude. It isn't very hard either. In fact its one thing where all you really have to do is nothing at all!

How many times have you quit by using some product or another? How many times have you quit cold turkey? Addiction is a bitch, even now - as a "pro" quitter of 6 months time I have cravings. They never go away, but they do get easier to put down. Its more like the craving for a good steak now.

It takes 3 days of fairly bad suckage and you are pretty much done with physical stuff. Now its all mental.

10+ years now and I still get cravings from time to time. You have to want to quit if you want to be successful. Otherwise you will always find an excuse to light up again.

 

[highland145]

I've actually been talking about quittine for 3 years, but my wife keeps threatening to leave for a month or so if I do. Apparently she thinks I'm "difficult to get along with" when I quit smoking...

Luck. My Mom has a little emphysema from 50 years of 2nd hand smoke.

 

[Kirby]

explain the pleasure. it relaxes you? it would seem the pleasure is outweighed by the fact if you don't get your nicotine fix at certain intervals of time you start to feel panicky, edgy, and act like a freakin bitch to your co-workers until you can go outside and get your drug. (I'm describing a heavy smoker at work)

sounds like my mom without coffee.

i smoke cigars, pipes, and dip, but it doesn't affect my mood if i don't have it. it is very relaxing though, especially after eating.

nothing beats a big meal followed by a strong cigar and bourbon.

 

[techs]

My friend passed away Saturday night from emphysema and COPD. He smoked up til about 5 years ago when he quit.
It was too late.

Eventually I hope we get smoking to point where almost no one does it.

And, btw, I have no problem with increasing the tax on cig's. It doesn't even begin to pay for the economic damages smoking does to people and our society.

 

[bobdole369]

Eventually I hope we get smoking to point where almost no one does it.

When only the Chinese smoke, we'll see our entire plan come to fruition.

(don't somehting lik 80% of chinese men smoke?)

 

[AreaCode707]

I quit over a year ago, thankfully, and even If I wanted to start again I couldn't afford it.

It's one of those outrageous luxury taxes I still for the life of me can't rationalize with. Do the rich only smoke now? It reminds me of the 17th century when only the wealthy class could enjoy sweets because they taxed the living shit out of sugar. Seems like we are coming back full circle. Instead of actually working or producing anything of real value, we will just starve the poor, and protect our wealth and standard of living by cutting off our right arms.

Wow, you and I reach totally different conclusions on this topic.

I view protecting our standard of living to involve food, shelter and education (add healthcare if you are so inclined). If we as a society feel that it is our responsibility to provide a basic standard of living for all people (which is a totally different topic) then putting a high tax on non-necessities is one of the best possible ways to provide necessities to others.

You say we will starve the poor, and I view this as a potential solution to provide for the poor. Interesting how differently we interpret the situation.

 

[techs]

When only the Chinese smoke, we'll see our entire plan come to fruition.

(don't somehting lik 80% of chinese men smoke?)

I will be a proud day in America when we can claim we only export our dangerous weeds.

 

[Regs]

Wow, you and I reach totally different conclusions on this topic.

I view protecting our standard of living to involve food, shelter and education (add healthcare if you are so inclined). If we as a society feel that it is our responsibility to provide a basic standard of living for all people (which is a totally different topic) then putting a high tax on non-necessities is one of the best possible ways to provide necessities to others.

You say we will starve the poor, and I view this as a potential solution to provide for the poor. Interesting how differently we interpret the situation.

I am a very reasonable guy and that made good enough sense for me to agree with. Just unfortunate it has to be forced out of peoples hands into other people who have "good intentions". Obediency and group mentality does not exactly had a good track record as of late.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I don't understand why people don't do that. I mean if you smoke a pack a day that's 250-300/mo. So grow some tobacco in your basement with some grow lights and dry and roll it.

As others pointed out tobacco is harder to grow and dry then some other plants, but you don't really have to grow your own. These taxes on cigs are almost always just on the finished product and not on tobacco itself. You can still buy rolling tobacco for a reasonable price. I saw an 'American Spirit' brand 120 gram tin with 200 papers for $20.

10+ years now and I still get cravings from time to time. You have to want to quit if you want to be successful. Otherwise you will always find an excuse to light up again.

This is definitly true. I smoked for 15 year, quit for 4 years, and picked it back up after one bad weekend. I never quit wanting one, the cravings just became something I got use to.

I am a very reasonable guy and that made good enough sense for me to agree with. Just unfortunate it has to be forced out of peoples hands into other people who have "good intentions".

The real problem is that we are going to force it out of the hands of the very poorest. Smoking tracks very well with poverty.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I'm still waiting for the fat tax. Where's my $2 McDonald's burger? The poor will really be screwed then.

 

[QueBert]

When only the Chinese smoke, we'll see our entire plan come to fruition.

(don't somehting lik 80% of chinese men smoke?)

I think it's much higher than 80%, in China they have business meetings to talk about all the new cigarettes. Not just a few people, I mean literally thousands and thousands. Smoking is damn near the countries official past time. America is one of the only countries that has this snobby holier than thou look from the non smokers to the smokers. I don't care one way or the other, but I know in most other countries smoking is totally accepted.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I think it's much higher than 80%, in China they have business meetings to talk about all the new cigarettes. Not just a few people, I mean literally thousands and thousands. Smoking is damn near the countries official past time. America is one of the only countries that has this snobby holier than thou look from the non smokers to the smokers. I don't care one way or the other, but I know in most other countries smoking is totally accepted.

It's not just China. I think it may just be an Asian culture thing right now. When I was in Japan a few months ago I noticed that it felt like I was in the US of 80s. It seemed like everyone smoked and all of the restaurants were either smoking or at least had a smoking section. I'll bet the Japanese airlines allow smoking too.

 

[hanoverphist]

Far, far?
2-4x food cost, healthcare, college costs.
Sure you can save money on hand-me-downs but what percentage is that?
The main bulk of savings can be had if one parent quits their job to provide daycare once the daycare costs would have exceeded the income of said job I suppose, but I still don't think that qualifies as 'far lower.'

health insurance for a family is the same cost regardless of how many children you have. making a meal for 3 is not much less than making a meal for 5. daycare doesnt make sense after a couple of kids. hell, i have 3 kids and they were all in daycare. it cost me more than my house payments or my truck for that year. luckily, it was less than 1/3 of the lowest salary, and still worth it for her to work.
at age 4 we put our kids in daycare part time so they would have some interaction with other kids without us around. we felt that would help them with their future MUCH more than the extra cash would at that point. by the time they got into actual school, they had already learned quite a bit about dealing with other kids. so far i have seen nothing but positives from putting them in daycare. i did miss staying home with them, we had a great time. but, the chance to make very good money as well as get them some social skills was worth it.

im also a smoker, but im on the verge of quitting. i just hope i dont turn into one of those asshole ex smokers like the majority of the people in here so far. my biggest hurdle will be my friend circle. they literally ALL smoke.

 

[techs]

I think it's much higher than 80%, in China they have business meetings to talk about all the new cigarettes. Not just a few people, I mean literally thousands and thousands. Smoking is damn near the countries official past time. America is one of the only countries that has this snobby holier than thou look from the non smokers to the smokers. I don't care one way or the other, but I know in most other countries smoking is totally accepted.

Nah. Parts of Europe are wising up to the dangers of smoking.

However, the US isn't the only place that grows good cigarette tobacky. I expect that in not too many years low cost tobacky from China, or some other Communist heaven, will be all over world.

 

[PricklyPete]

When are they going to start taxing sugar and corn sweetners? I'd be all over that.

 

[moshquerade]

When are they going to start taxing sugar and corn sweetners? I'd be all over that.

if they taxed high fructose corn syrup containing products just about everything in the grocery store would get hit.

 

[PricklyPete]

if they taxed high fructose corn syrup containing products just about everything in the grocery store would get hit.

Exactly my thought.

 

[lord_emperor]

Well, when you're 60 and find out you have lung cancer, look back and realize in the past 45 years you spent over $100,000 (adjust for inflation) buying your smokes...

 

[DrPizza]

To answer a few questions that were raised (I'm only a couple miles from one part of one of the reservations)

1. You used to be able to order cigarettes online. It's now illegal to send cigarettes by mail. That's a very recent change. It was aimed (obviously) at shutting down the Indians, particularly the Seneca Nation who controlled about 80% or more of all online sales. Basically, that law will all but stop their online businesses.

2. NY "plans" to tax cigarettes purchased on the reservation. HAHAHAHAHAA! HAHAHAHAAAAA HA HA HAA! The Indians manufacture several brands themselves. So, NY can't go after the suppliers to keep them from selling to the Indians. Strike one. NY has ZERO sovereinty on Indian land. The Senecas can do whatever they want. The *only* way NY could tax those cigarettes is to put up road blocks and searched everyone's car leaving the reservation. Legally, it's a big circle jerk in Albany where they're just posturing so they can say, "see, we tried to make them play fair! Sorry local small business owners competing for cigarette sales."

 

[marvdmartian]

You know what's the worst part about these cigarette taxes? If suddenly everyone in the country decided, tomorrow, to quit smoking, that tax revenue would dry up. But hey, the whores we vote into office have gotten used to depending on that source of income to fund all their pet projects, and they're not going to just let it dry up like that, are they??

Wouldn't surprise me to find out the real reason they're jacking up the tax on cigarettes is because that revenue has been dropping in recent years, and they have to make up for it now. I know the possibility of everyone quitting is NIL, but imagine what else they'd suddenly tax, or tax more grossly, if that did happen. "Oh well, guess we'll just have to tax gasoline up to $5/gallon, and triple the tax on alcohol!"

 

[SMOGZINN]

Exactly my thought.

You don't have to tax HFCS you just have to cut corn subsidies. It would be silly to leavy large taxes on something that you are giving huge subsidies to keep cheap.

 

[QueBert]

When are they going to start taxing sugar and corn sweetners? I'd be all over that.

If this ever happened I'd have to start looking to the Mob to get my Coke for a decent price.

 

[bobdole369]

I'd have to start looking to the Mob to get my Coke for a decent price.

The mexicans and jews have sugar cane based Coke. SO if it were just HFCS as it well should be, you are still covered.

 

[bobdole369]

1. You used to be able to order cigarettes online.

That same law also wiped out the RYO/MYO (roll your own/make your own) with a tax increase that was something like 900%. It essentially closed the loophole, where it was conceivable to smoke for less than $40 or so a carton anywhere in the states. Previously you could get a carton of RYO for less than $10.