Since taxis on tobacco don't even begin to cover all the medical expenses of people who get sick from smoking,

Question

isn't the government losing money? Of course, if it cancelled all tobacco taxes, the smokers would be getting a free ride.
Persons with bodies weakened by smoking, get all kinds of diseases and ailments. Should tobacco taxes be raised 10 times to pay more of their medical bills that now fall upon the non-smoking public?

Answer 1

fast food is bad too .. should we tax 10% more on that too?

Answer 2

It's a good question, but the answer is complicated.

First of all, how can you accurately determine how much smokers cost the government? For example, lets say a smoker named John Doe gets heart disease at 55. He goes on disability, which costs the government a million bucks. At 60, he dies of a heart attack at age 60. So, did he actually cost the government a million bucks?

Maybe. But maybe, if he were not a smoker, he'd have got heart desease anyway. Or maybe he would have lived to 105 years of age, meanwhile costing the government 10 million dollars in medical and nursing home expenses.

So we'll never know whether cigarette taxes truly compensate for the cost. Still, such taxes have two benefits: they raise revenue, and they discourage people from smoking.

On the other hand, smokers can reasonably complain that this unfairly discriminates against them. All sorts of things are unhealthy. Yet the government doesn't impose high taxes on fatty foods, for example, or caffeinated beverages.

A few other points on the "anti" side: I'd be concerned about poor families. If cigarette prices are sky-high, and the parents can't give up their addiction, it'll be the kids who suffer most.

Also, as a practical matter, there's a point of diminishing return. If cigarettes are taxed too highly, people will get them from the black market, or grow their own tobacco. Then government revenue would taper off, the number of smokers would stop shrinking, and smokers would become criminals.

Personally, I wouldn't object to small, gradual increases in the cigarette tax, provided that the impact of such increases were monitored.

Answer 3

Actually, the government SAVES money from smokers themselves dying prematurely and therefore not hanging around to collect social security and medicare. Yes, there actually was such a study done. It does have some logic to it, but I'm not so sure myself. The tobacco companies were sued for monies to compensate for increased health costs and everybody got a cut to offset states' medical costs. Follow up studies show a little less then half (in some cases, none at all) actually went to offsetting those costs. So what would be the point/ The same can be said for alcohol. Why not jack up the taxes on booze? I would list all the other stuff linked to shortened life spans, increased health problems, etc, but a lot of self-righteous, sanctimonious people would think the connection absurd no matter how realistic. Point is, if taxing cigarettes would actual help defray medical costs, I'd say go ahead and do it. But it won't.

Answer 4

If you want to raise the tax on tobacco 10 times then you need to start adding that same tax to fast food, any food high in fat, red meat, and taxing people per pound over ideal body weight they are.

Obesity is poised to overcome smoking as the number one preventable cause of death in this country. If you want to sin tax the smoker for their ailments then sin tax the lard *** as well.

Obesity and bad eating are costing this country more than the smoker because the obese live years and years with high cost illness such diabetes, hypertension, gastric problems, renal problems, peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, and the the sequalae to the those conditions.

Answer 5

Yes we should tax the hell out of cigarettes and fatty food, make a McD's cost $22.57 and a bag of Chips, $8.27 and then a bottle of beer, $9.98 and a bottle of Jim Beam $908.92, and then add taxes on cars that a used Yugo would cost $927,987.02 and walking a block to the grocery store would cost $4.92 and crossing a busy street would cost $22.05, and eating a box of popcorn at the movies would cost $98.56, and before you know it, will all be into the government for a cool $1 million just for the cost of living.

What a wonderful life.

Peace

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Source(s):
ex smoker who believes smokers have the right to kill themselves, not others. Where does the madness stop in taxing personal behavior to death.

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Answer 6

In my state the voters just rejected a constitutional amendment that would have grossly increased cigarette taxes. Liquor taxes have not been increased in my state at all within the last 30 years, mainly because of lobbyists from the liquor industry who smother state legislators with all kinds of financial rewards, free trips to the Bahamas, etc.,. That is not fair. The misuse of liquor, i.e., drunk driving and related traffic accidents, cost tax payers almost as much as paying for illnesses caused by smoking.

Answer 7

"taxis on tobacco" would solve the problem, because no one could smoke if taxi-cabs ran over all the cigarettes and extinguished them.

I thought that the "tobacco settlement" a few years ago was supposed to have reimbursed the states for what was paid smoking-related medical costs.

Answer 8

Yes, I beleive so smoking causes everyone damage. The smokers and the non.