Citizen, I understand that you wish to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but in this case, Caesar is asking for that which is not his. I don’t think most smokers minded paying when the taxes on cigarettes were merely taxes and not the combined behavior modification program/thievery they are today.
Here in NY, for example, a carton of cigarettes now costs nearly $100 (and that’s not including NYC, where a carton is now well OVER $100). At least $60 of that is for taxes, and another chunk is covering the Tobacco Settlement from c.20 years ago (in other words...another tax).
Add to that the increasingly unreasonable restrictions on the activity itself, which their proponents readily admit are designed to alter perceptions of and behavior by smokers, and you’ve got quite the little experiment going on.
The designers of this experiment have already begun to use these techniques on other segments of the population, and it’s working. We are being tenderized for tyranny.
For the past 2 decades, children have not been taught that smoking is bad for them. Instead, they are taught that SMOKERS are bad and have been instructed to pass moral judgments on them. They’ve been taught that excessive taxation, on the other hand, is morally acceptable.
Last week, a video showing some hideously raised children tormenting a school bus monitor went viral. In it, the kids were heard to be using verbiage straight out of the Obesity Epidemic curriculum currently being used in school. Just like smokers, these little brats have been taught that being fat is morally reprehensible and that anyone who IS fat must be ridiculed for it.
Where do we think Little Mikey Bloomingidiot got the nerve to become the Napoleonic toad that he is? I’ll tell you where: He saw that a segment of the populace (smokers) can be made to pay confiscatory taxes AND be made into social pariahs on par with child molesters and serial killers without suffering any political repercussions himself. Now that he sees the experiment has worked, he is turning his attention to others (the obese).
So to me, avoiding these “taxes” is a moral imperative which I hope one day will lead to a shrinking of government intrusion into Americans’ daily lives. After all, our nation was founded in part by those who reasonably objected to unreasonable taxation, and I see no cause to change that attitude today.
Regards,
We’ll have to disagree on the avoidance of cigarette taxes. I don’t see paying taxes as a religious freedom issue, like the contraception mandate. In other words, a cigarette tax doesn’t force me to violate my relationship with God.
On the other hand, I fully understand why a lot of people avoid oppressive taxes, and I especially appreciate that our ancestors fought a rebellion to free us from oppressive government. I don’t like taxes, but I think a reasonable level of them are necessary to pay legitimate government functions. We’re way beyond that nowadays of course.
That said. Taxes usually fall under Caesar’s realm, although I can imagine ways where they could be used to discourage freedom of religion. I’m prepared to follow the law until that happens. If something like that does come along, I will disobey, prepare to pay the consequences, and fight it in the courts.