Posted on 10/20/2013 5:43:53 AM PDT by Sam's Army
Cigarettes cost about $7 a pack in Pennsylvania. This guy smokes two packs a day when he has the money. Fourteen bucks a day can buy plenty of nutrition.
The inverse relationship between wealth and smoking can be seen every day. Cheap bars and restaurants inevitably have "smoking porches" where patrons can duck out and take a drag. More expensive places tend not to have them, and don't need them.
I get annoyed with the “second hand smoke” meme. Yes the smoke that comes out of their lungs could be considered 2nd hand but how about the smoke that comes off the burning end of the cig? That is pure 1st hand smoke and everyone around smokers is smoking it!
I posted something similar on another thread. A #10 bag of potatoes can be had for $1.49 at our Aldi. A #1bag of rice or beans is under one dollar at Walmart. A generic #5 bag of flour or sugar is just under $2.50 each. A container of whole oats is cheaper than, lasts longer than, and is more nutritious than a box of cereal. if I had to feed all five of us (granted baby girl is only six weeks old) for $10/day I could.
Smoking is an addiction......addictions to anything always has priority. When one doesn’t have their “fix” anxiety and physical withdrawal symptons begin. So of course they’re going to choose cigs. over food.
I find it interesting that people who eat too much often do so to “comfort” their anxiety as well. They “wear” their addictive habit via pounds of unwanted flesh.
I have a friend who has fought her emotional eating for years. If happy she eats, if sad she eats, no matter what emotion food is her “friend”.
I think it’s similar for people who smoke. It’s routine and equally as enjoyable.
Interesting. This might be a fun garden experiment for the kids.
The Ohio valley is the most perfect climate for tobacco in the world. Kentucky burley is the world’s gold standard.
5 dollars a day is 150 dollars a month or 35 dollars a week.
35 dollars a week gets me a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk 1/2 gallon orange juice a dozen eggs, and a pound of bacon, 2 pounds of hamburger, a small pork loin roast, a couple of packages of frozen vegetables, a pound of peanut butter, some condiments, butter, and some fruit to round it all out.
The condiments and peanut butter will carry over to the next week when I can do the above or buy dry cereals or oatmeal, get several bags of dried beans and vary other purchases to include soups. Chicken is still relatively cheap even if one must have the more “expensive” skinless boneless chicken breasst. As a matter of fact, I could live fairly well on 100 dollars a month food wise and use the 50 dollars saved to have a basic internet with which to hammer leftists with on line!
In short, if one knows how to cook, one can eat well on very basic items for 35 dollars a week. You won’t eat steak regularly, but one could enjoy a good pasta with sauce and have some left over for the next day as well. I do most of the shopping in my house and the basic items aren’t suffering as much with inflation as are the frilly prepared foods and fancy meats and deli items. 10lbs of yellow potatoes are about 3.50 at my stores and can last a single individual a whole month.
And as you stated, one can buy seeds and grow a heck of lot more fresh.
"You smoke out of anxiety because you don't have the food you need," said Harvey, 54, who lives alone in Crum Lynne, Pa.I know a panhandler who states that one has to be "stupid" to "starve" in this town, and I don't ever buy into any sob stories of this kind anywhere in this country. Fill out a form, qualify, boom, EBT card for food -- and it isn't hard to qualify, and food assistance is exempt from sanction (sanctions on grants happen when a client failed to report some change, like, oh, the kid no longer lives in the house). In this case, I don't buy it, not least because of the price of cigarettes and the speed with which they burn. This story is probably just part of the partisan media's meme-building program for the ag bill.
<...”I get annoyed with the “second hand smoke”....>
You can always leave the room. I get annoyed with people who complaining about smokers. Currently overweight people create more health problems than smokers...so it’s good to know those facts.
I say each to his own...if you have a health issue which being around smokers aggrivates...well that is YOUR problem. So you stay away from places where people smoke....problem solved.
Gov. needs to stay out of peoples business period.
Story is ridiculous....there are many places one can get food...we all know this. So it’s not a choice between food and cigs.
Learned something new today! Thanks guys!
Pound box of spagetti, $1.00 on sale.
Bag of frozen mixed asian veggies, 2.00 on sale.
Soy sauce, 1.00. Small head of cabbage: 1.00
Other seasonings, on hand.
Makes a lot of pancit and enough for three days for one person.
There are varieties of tobacco suitable for your climate. It grows in Canada, several of my friends made nice money spending summers up there helping manage the crop, back in the eighties.
If you can grow petunias or nicotania, you can grow their cousin, tobacco.
True. My brother is hunting this morning. He's particularly looking for an 80 lb feral pig for me.
That's a lot of free meat, and all I have to do is process it.
/johnny
All my life (I am 73) I always did leave the room without complaint but now there are more of us than there are of you so the tables have turned. Deal with it.
"Excise: a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid" -- Ben Jonson
A quintessential liberal conundrum.
Smoking relieves stress, cigarettes raise revenue, cigarette advertising encourages the poor to smoke, many have to choose between smoking and eating, the poor spend a higher percentage of income on smoking, ...
A quintessential liberal conundrum — a good liberal can take either side and feel good about it.
Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. Don’t smoke because smoking is bad.
[Disclaimer: I smoked for 4 decades. I quit in January 2003. I have empathy for smokers, but smokers can quit — if they really want to.]
“If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
“You smoke out of anxiety because you don’t have the food you need,”
And I keep hitting myself on my head with a hammer because it feels so good when I stop.
It’s the chemical addiction altering his better judgement. I used to be a heavy smoker and drinker and I am speaking from experience. Just about any lame excuse worked to keep my addictions going.
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