Posted on 11/26/2010 4:03:31 AM PST by AtlasStalled
“I walked to the store a lot of times as a kid to buy 2 or 3 cigs people could not afford a whole pack so they bought them 1 or 2 at a time.”
I didn’t know that went on for so long, and figured it was more recent only because the price had gone up so much.
One good reason to be against Prohibition or over taxation of anything is knowing that it empowers criminal gangs like the Kennedys.
I thought you were supposed to chew them.......
” I thought you were supposed to chew them....... “
Well - ‘chew’ each his own, I guess......
Politicians are economic illiterates and think in terms of a zero sum game where there are no alternatives. Ah, but there ARE alternatives because no political solution exists in a vacuum. The thing politicians refuse to understand is that increasing taxes beyond a certain tipping point guarantees LESS tax revenue to the government. The political solution is to raise taxes even higher to make up shortfall. This results in even LESS revenue than before. It is axiomatic that politicians do not learn from the real world results of their actions.
Nor can they get a grip on other alternatives. Since there are fewer and fewer places where people can smoke, coupled with higher and higher taxes — people QUIT! No smoking = no tax revenue. Or, people can buy the materials: raw tobacco, cigarette papers, filters, and a rolling machine and do it themselves — and pay no tax. Or, they can go to their friendly neighborhood cigarette and tobacco product bootlegger and buy black market with out paying taxes.
About 25 years ago Canada embraced a huge tax on cigarettes — something like $5 per pack — for the usual B.S. reasons. In Canada. the provinces have a monopoly on alcohol, beer, and cigarette sales through state-run stores — no private sales are allowed.
The result was similar to the American Prohibition experience; a huge explosion of bootleg sales. There was even a cottage industry forging tax stamps for individual packs! Eventually the politicians figured out they LOST money on each sale of smokes at there state-run ABC stores and rescinded the tax. Think NY politicians are as smart as Canadians? Nope.
Interesting! My “friend’s” son is stationed in Newport News at the moment; coming home for Christmas! In a big-a$$ truck!
Post analysis bad new committee to be formed.
We used to get our Coors from the truck driver that delivered steaks to the restaurant I worked at (in Illinois) back during my college days.
The anti-smokers will claim that these high taxes will motivate people to quit smoking and some of the tax money is used to produce commercials and such to discourage young people from smoking. But the high taxes and black market cigarette sales actually make it easier for underage kids to buy cigarettes. So any way you look at it, it doesn’t work.
People who consider themselves conservative, opposed to intrusive Big Brother government and for smaller, more responsible government, but still find themselves supporting huge, discriminatory taxes and intrusive government regulations on the use of tobacco need to do a personal reevaluation of who they are and what they really stand for.
One cannot be an honest advocate of constitutional freedoms and limited government yet believe they can, and should be, applied on the basis of personal likes and dislikes.
I am talking 1960s a pack then was .25 cents gas was .32 cents and we couldn’t afford them! This is the first I have heard of this going on recently but no it is nothing new.
History is repeating itself.
Back in the 1970's there was a huge difference in cigarette prices in NY State and states like Virginia and, especially, North Carolina. People would load their cars and vans with 30 carton cases of smokes to bring north even though there was a law limiting the legal quantity to a few cartons.
The NY State government got so upset over the lost taxes that they placed spotters at the high volume cigarette outlets on roads like I-95. They would document and film cars with NY State tags being loaded and go after residents for the presumed unpaid taxes. They also aggressively stopped cars and trucks coming into the state with those tag numbers along with other vehicles that looked suspicious.
The outcome is that NY and other northern states, with the help of the FEDS, were able to pressure the southern states into raising their tobacco taxes to the point it reduced the price differential making the importing into high tax states less attractive.
High tax rates are costing NY, not blackmarkets.
“We used to get our Coors from the truck driver that delivered steaks to the restaurant I worked at (in Illinois) back during my college days.”
Funny thing is that I now live about 20 miles from the Coors plant in Golden, Colorado and I wouldn’t drink it on a bet.
Right again, Munro! I have often been surprised over these past years at just how many people here on FR support the laws turning smokers into financially assaulted social pariahs.
“I don’t want to pay if you get sick,” is a theme not only heard on more liberal outlets, but here as well. It saddens me that my fellow FReepers go to this argument when the argument SHOULD be, “I don’t want to pay into a socialist system that steals from Peter to save Paul.” It doesn’t matter if Paul is a smoker, or a motorcycle rider, or a skydiver, or fat, or whatever...NO Peter should HAVE to pay for ANY Paul.
Then again, there are MANY here who are true to their conservative beliefs and, hate tobacco though they may, do NOT support the confiscatory taxation and social engineering of their fellow citizens.
Regards,
Should have learned something from prohibition.
If you think there’s a ‘War on Drugs’ now, just wait until the government gets a cut out of legalized drugs via taxes.
Thats about what it cost to roll your own until the government raised taxes 25 dollars per pound of cigarette tobacco...there are ways around that tax and I still get my menthol tobacco....even with the tax its still cheaper than buying a carton...a pound of tobacco makes a little over 2 cartons.
It doesn’t cost the state anything, they don’t have the money, so they should cut spending..the money isn’t owed to them...
There are quite a few anti-smoking nazi’s on F.R. I have tangled with them many times....they think the government should be involved if it is something they disapprove of...not really conservatives, but love to call themselves that.....it causes them to come out of the closet as to what they really believe...LOL AT THEM..
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