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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
Posts: 20,860
Loc: Foreign Lands
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SMOKERS UNITE!
#22100556 - 08/16/15 09:43 PM (8 years, 5 months ago) |
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Cigarette smokers make up approx. 18% of the population http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/index.htm#national
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Nearly 18 of every 100 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (17.8%) currently smoke cigarettes. This means an estimated 42.1 million adults in the United States currently smoke cigarettes.1
It varies from state to state but still hovers around 10% in the lowest smoking states.
Quote:
Current smoking ranged from about 10 of every 100 adults in Utah (10.3%) to about 27 of every 100 adults in West Virginia (27.3%).3
What other group of people comprising 18% of the population is as politically marginalized as smokers? Its time for smokers to cross party lines, and unite as a voting bloc to protect our interests. Its time to tell the politicians "No, i won't pay another dollar per pack under the auspices of funding anti tobacco advertisements, or any other thing. Make someone else pay this time" The next time your city or state passes a tobacco tax, i say, start robbing random strangers for the dollar unless they can show you their pack. Ok, maybe we shouldn't rob people, but if we keep going like this, we'll all be paying 20 bucks a pack before the decade is over. Something has to be done. Let's do it at the polls. write your congressman and tell them how you feel about more tobacco taxes. We're still 18%; lets make it a concerted 18% and some shit could go our way for awhile, until the backlash.
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impatientguy
Ganjalf a very mighty lab wizard



Registered: 11/26/14
Posts: 5,054
Loc: USA
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Stinky cancer sticks. Gross
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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
Posts: 20,860
Loc: Foreign Lands
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fuck off, 82 percenter!
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impatientguy
Ganjalf a very mighty lab wizard



Registered: 11/26/14
Posts: 5,054
Loc: USA
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Haha But I bet we both smoke weed so hey we can unite in that thread!
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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
Posts: 20,860
Loc: Foreign Lands
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Achillita
Back to the basics



Registered: 05/26/14
Posts: 4,565
Last seen: 3 years, 10 days
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I only smoke tobacco for religious reasons, but I can understand your frustration. Honestly when I buy tobacco, I don't pay any taxes... I only smoke once a week maybe so I don't buy that often.
Why not just get into rolling your own cigarettes or pipe smoking? You can buy an ounce of quality loose tobacco(or blends) for like 15 dollars.
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The Ecstatic
Chilldog Extraordinaire


Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 33,369
Loc: 'Merica
Last seen: 46 minutes, 45 seconds
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I would say atheists are more marginalized, and we're not even a threat to public well-being. The opposite, actually.
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Achillita
Back to the basics



Registered: 05/26/14
Posts: 4,565
Last seen: 3 years, 10 days
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Around certain groups of people, atheists can be "outed', but personally i haven't seen such things happen in years. I've seen people go up to cigarette smokers they don't know and tell them they are doing a disgusting thing though.
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The Ecstatic
Chilldog Extraordinaire


Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 33,369
Loc: 'Merica
Last seen: 46 minutes, 45 seconds
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Well I live in the South where cigarettes are God and atheists are the devil.
When i lived up north things were different.
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Achillita
Back to the basics



Registered: 05/26/14
Posts: 4,565
Last seen: 3 years, 10 days
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I live in Texas... And I used to live in Oklahoma... It's worse in Oklahoma, but the younger generation doesn't really care to much there. The older generation is more likely to marginalize you, but even then it's rare nowadays.
The times are a changing.
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paperbackwriter
Edward Lear


Registered: 03/31/14
Posts: 1,888
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As a smoker and a former smoker and someone again trying to quit smoking, I disagree. Smoking creates a burden on society. If I smoke I'm more likely to miss work. More likely to get sick and need health care. More likely to get cancer.
These things have a very real economic cost. I have no problem paying the 'sin' tax on smokes, when I do smoke.
-------------------- Why should we strive with cynic frown To knock their fairy castles down? ~ Eliza Cook It's rather embarrassing to have given one's entire life to pondering the human predicament and to find that in the end one has little more to say than, 'Try to be a little kinder.' ~Aldous Huxley
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Unfortunately for smokers, the few ruined it for the many.
When assholes tell those near them that smoking is their right and they don't give a fuck about the non-smokers... when smokers flick their butts willy-nilly... when smokers empty their ashtrays in parking lots... when non-smokers have to walk through a cloud to enter buildings... they got what they had coming to them. This, of course, brought along the considerate smokers.
As for the taxes? I'm greatly in favor of those who smoke, paying more to smoke. That goes for any activity that incurs greater healthcare costs.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
Posts: 20,860
Loc: Foreign Lands
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yeah? better start adding sin taxes to junk food then. Maybe a 50% tax on cars and motorcycles too. Definitely better raise the price of alcohol by at least a buck per beer. Skateboards? tax'em harder (to reduce healthcare costs). Shoes that don't qualify as non-slip? tax 'em. Glass? tax it, someone might cut themselves. For sure we should have hiking, camping, and swimming taxes since those are all activities that can lead to higher healthcare costs. not to mention the public cost of search and rescue missions. Let's go ahead and tax bb guns and slingshots extra too (you could put an eye out kid) We need more plastic taxes too, the toxins released during manufacture almost have to increase heathcare costs right? let's see here, how about a mirror tax? if people couldn't see themselves, they would have less body image issues. think of the money we could save if there were fewer eating disorders. did i miss anything?
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Quote:
ballsalsa said: did i miss anything?
Yes. You missed quite a lot. Trans-fats. MSG. Large sodas. Salt and much, much more.
Once Americans were forced to pay for healthcare and/or insurance for others... it became everyones business.
It's only going to get worse. More and more things will be deemed too dangerous for our own good.
Feel-gooders wanted us all to look out for one another. Well lookout... that will sooner or later smack them upside the head.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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paperbackwriter
Edward Lear


Registered: 03/31/14
Posts: 1,888
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Alcohol is taxed. Gas taxes cover cars which mostly goes towards roads. I support taxing sugar, as a parent I'm tired of it being added to ninty percent of our food.
It's always been everybody's business. Unless you're suggesting hospitals should refuse emergency care to the uninsured rather than absorbing the cost. If you are it's a policy that predates Obamacare.
-------------------- Why should we strive with cynic frown To knock their fairy castles down? ~ Eliza Cook It's rather embarrassing to have given one's entire life to pondering the human predicament and to find that in the end one has little more to say than, 'Try to be a little kinder.' ~Aldous Huxley
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Stonehenge
Alt Center


Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 14,850
Loc: S.E.
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pbs is right about this. Not only the fact smokers have more health care costs which the rest of us are forced to pay for, plus the lost productivity, it also harms non smokers. Second hand smoke is extremely harmful. You go into a cab and it reeks of tobacco fumes, same with many hotel rooms, and other public places.
I am in favor of more sin taxes on booze, cigs, and sugar. I would tax the hell out of hfcs's since they have been shown to be the most dangerous. Make pot legal and tax it. We can always grow our own if govt is too greedy.
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
Posts: 20,860
Loc: Foreign Lands
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tax and spend, right stones?
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Stonehenge
Alt Center


Registered: 06/20/04
Posts: 14,850
Loc: S.E.
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Taxes on crap that people not only do not need but which harms both them and society are an excellent target for taxes. Or being prohibited but its better to allow them and tax them enough that society is not paying the cost.
We also need to tax countries that practice predatory pricing and dump their crappy products on us.
-------------------- “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” (attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville political philosopher Circa 1835) Trade list http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/18047755
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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
Posts: 20,860
Loc: Foreign Lands
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oh? are you the supreme arbiter of what is necessary or harmful?
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paperbackwriter
Edward Lear


Registered: 03/31/14
Posts: 1,888
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Quote:
ballsalsa said: oh? are you the supreme arbiter of what is necessary or harmful?
The CDC is in this country. Sugar, smoking, and alcohol are definitely on the list.
I also agree with Stoney on trade tariffs. We're on a roll today
-------------------- Why should we strive with cynic frown To knock their fairy castles down? ~ Eliza Cook It's rather embarrassing to have given one's entire life to pondering the human predicament and to find that in the end one has little more to say than, 'Try to be a little kinder.' ~Aldous Huxley
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