Are you willing to pay taxes to help smokers stop smoking? People gripe and complain abotu smokers constantly and what they should and shouldn't do. It gets really old. I jusy wonder how many of these same people wanting to outlaw smoking are willing to pay higher taxes so that people will quit.
2007-03-29 06:55:30 · 21 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Government
I'm NOT talking about myself...even though everyone assumes I am. I'm just saying everyone wants to complain abotu it, but no one wants to do anything to help.
2007-03-29 07:00:31 · update #1
wow well fxy basicaly said everything I was gonna say. It's amazing how many of you are closeminded to the fact that yes you do pay for heroin addicts and other drug addicts to get clean. the majority of ppl in rehabs are either state or government funded programs and do you honestly think the money comes out of george W's paycheck? No . It comes out of yours. So what difference would paying for smokers to quit be? I personally would rather know my tax money is going to a program to help extend life while a person still has that oppurtunity, other than paying for their breathing machines later on life as we do now. To all those that have quit congrats to you I know personaly how hard that is and to those that haven't you have my vote for funding!
2007-03-29 08:05:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The majority of health insurance plans include partial-full coverage for smoking secession programs. A smoker does not need to rely on government-funded programs to stop smoking. All they need to do is become proactive about their health and sign up for a program through their medical insurance company.
As far as indoor smoking bans are concerned...I am a huge fan! If people want to smoke in their own home/car..whatever. But all people should have equal rights when it comes to going out to dinner. With an indoor smoking ban a smoker AND a non smoker can both enjoy a meal at the same restaurant and neither of them will have their health suffer as a result of the habits of their fellow diners.
As a former waitress, I can say from experience it is miserable to work in a restaurant that allows smoking. You stink at the end of your shift, you always have a stuffed up nose, and you are constantly having to dump nasty ashtrays after your customers have finished their meal. Since the indoor smoking ban has gone into effect in my state, I enjoyed a HUGE improvement in the quality of my workplace. And guess what...my tips didn't suffer one little bit.
2007-03-29 15:08:18 · answer #2 · answered by western b 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why should I pay taxes to help a person stop smoking - how is THEIR addiction my problem? What happened to personal responsibility?
I am for the anti-smoking laws because I don't want their smoke inflicted upon me. Sure they have rights but they don't give a crap about my right not to breathe in their pollution.
I literally can't breath when I am around smokers. This is not an exaggeration! I have a chronic cough that gets worse when I am around smokers or just smell the remains of a smoker. I violently cough and can't catch my breath.
BTW, I'm not a Nazi!
2007-03-29 14:01:59 · answer #3 · answered by JessicaRabbit 6 · 4⤊ 2⤋
I'm a non-smoker. First, no I wouldn't be willing to pay additional taxes to help you quit. But I wasn't one of those bloody morons that voted to raise the tax on smokers either. That was one of the most short sighted, pointless acts of self inflicted harm I've seen in a long time. I'll bet that not one of those obnoxious anti-smoking Nazis realizes they voted another tax onto themselves.
You and every other person has the right to smoke, drink and use drugs if you like. I don't care at all so long as you don't inflict it on me. You have every right to smoking establishments and I as a non-smoker will not go there. That works just fine for me. Why so many people come up with so many excuses for trying to force something on others I'll never know but in the long run they are harming themselves and voting away their own freedoms.
2007-03-29 14:09:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 3⤋
You are right. But I would pay the taxes - health is more important and I am willing to stand by that..I hate that the government and industry is getting rich off bad health...and really I hate how they are beating up on smokers...we should be guiding you to quit for health not condemning you as evil...i personally have found that smokers are some of the nicest people...i just hate smoke and how it ruins people's health...
***Edit*** I don't think she means that we would be paying for them to stop smoking but that if tobacco were outlawed we would all have to make up the tax revenue it generates...she is not against them being responsible for themselves!***
2007-03-29 14:02:24 · answer #5 · answered by soulflower 7 · 2⤊ 3⤋
I don't like being around smokers, but it's never going to be outlawed, the tobacco industry in America employs too many people. And even if it were outlawed, why would tax money go to you to help you quit, you made a choice to smoke, now you have to live by that choice, plus once you quit you usually have lower health insurance payments.
2007-03-29 14:01:59 · answer #6 · answered by cthomp99 3 · 6⤊ 2⤋
Well, as a 43 year old who just got my tonsils out because they are so corroded, scared and infected from 2nd hand smoke suffered during childhood, I would say that the taxes should be paid by the people who cause the problem--smokers. That is what is currently happening. Thus the reason a pack of cancer sticks costs upward of $4
2007-03-29 14:00:36 · answer #7 · answered by Brenda J 3 · 7⤊ 2⤋
Why should the public pay? The public isn't the one who benefitted. We should sue to get all of the money for such programs from those who greatly profitted from people smoking? And I don't mean just the corporations, but the families and individuals involved also -- from major stock holders to company executives. Why should we allow the drug dealers to keep their ill-gotten gains while the public pays to clean up their mess?
I'm reminded of the Savings and Loan scandal of a few years ago. A select group (including members of the Bush family) made off with millions of dollars individually while the cost of the mess was inflicted upon the public.
"Behind every great fortune, lies a great crime." -- Honore de Balzac
2007-03-29 14:09:57 · answer #8 · answered by Renegade_X 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I am a smoker---really don't want to be!
Addicted!
Smoking is disgusting and if they stopped the production of cigarettes and tobacco everyone would have no other choice but to quit!
Can you imagine all of the money that would be saved within the health care system and pharmaceutical Co.s because they would no longer have the smoking related health issues to deal with or profit from!!!
Wish I never started!!
Everyone should quit!
2007-03-29 14:01:37 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 11⤊ 1⤋
why do I have to pay so you can quit? I don't see the connection. when drug addicts go to rehab they pay for it, the government doesn't, so why would the government start paying for smokers rehab? and besides with the money you save from quiting you can pay for your rehab yourself, how weak of a person are you that you can't stop on your own and that you want other people to pay for it. and no one has said to outlaw it, now that it has been proven that your smoke not only kills you it kills anyone that you smoke around, they just don't want you to smoke around other people!
2007-03-29 14:04:49 · answer #10 · answered by Sir Hard & Thick 3 · 4⤊ 2⤋