what is the ideal tax for a pack of cigarettes.?

[WalterMitty]

no less than $5

[Associate Justice PiT]

     No more than $0.

[Franzl]

no less than $5

[Earth]

The ideal tax for me is .05

[tik 🪀✨]

Same as the sale tax for any other harvested pre-packaged consumable.. 10%! I did, in fact, just pull that number out of my well-versed ass.

[A18]

no less than $5

And that's based on what? Empirical data, or just gut feeling?

[Јas]

Probably the standard sales tax + a tax to recoup the economic cost to the state of the costs arising from smoking

[© tweed]

shouldn't be taxed above normal sales tax.  anyone who suggests otherwise supports regressive taxation, preying on drug addicts, sustained poverty, and minimization of social mobility.




the 'cost to the state' argument is stupid.  cigarettes don't cost the state anything.  hint: everybody dies, sooner or later.  if I die of lung cancer at 55 it means I won't be collecting Medicare and insurance for the 20+ years that I will no longer live.  the odds of developing a degenerative disease are relatively high once someone gets into their 70s and 80s, which can take years to play itself out and cost tens of thousands of dollars to treat.  whatever you guys will shell out for my oxygen tank in 2040, you'll more than get back from the Alzheimer's I won't develop as a result of being prematurely dead.

[Јas]

the 'cost to the state' argument is stupid.  cigarettes don't cost the state anything.  hint: everybody dies, sooner or later.  if I die of lung cancer at 55 it means I won't be collecting Medicare and insurance for the 20+ years that I will no longer live.  the odds of developing a degenerative disease are relatively high once someone gets into their 70s and 80s, which can take years to play itself out and cost tens of thousands of dollars to treat.  whatever you guys will shell out for my oxygen tank in 2040, you'll more than get back from the Alzheimer's I won't develop as a result of being prematurely dead.

1. In places where the state pays for health care, there are often very considerable costs which would not exist if nobody smoked.
2. There's also very considerable difference between accounting costs and economic costs. You seem to suggest I was referring simply to the former, my point concerned the latter (which would, if properly done, take proper account of some of the things you mention).

(I have, btw, precisely no idea how big or small the economic costs would work out to be.)

[© tweed]

1. In places where the state pays for health care, there are often very considerable costs which would not exist if nobody smoked.

of course.  there are also considerable costs that the state does NOT incur as a result of people smoking, which was my point.

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what does this mean?  lost productivity?  easily countered by people dying before they get to older ages.  people above 60 or so don't produce much of anything and just consume more for increasing amounts of time.

[Јas]

1. In places where the state pays for health care, there are often very considerable costs which would not exist if nobody smoked.

of course.  there are also considerable costs that the state does NOT incur as a result of people smoking, which was my point.

Which would have to be taken into the economic costs.

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what does this mean?  lost productivity?  easily countered by people dying before they get to older ages.  people above 60 or so don't produce much of anything and just consume more for increasing amounts of time.

See here

[© tweed]

I'll read that when I can mentally afford it.  right now I'm on 4 hours of sleep and it is eerily similar in format to the sh**t professors post online and tell me to read.

[John Dibble]

Whatever the standard sales tax is.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

[© tweed]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

[Mint]

About the same as now. The amount of resources we spend on preventable lung cancer, emphysema, etc. is pretty outrageous. Sure some areas might take it too far but overall I think it's a justified added sales tax.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I don't know what the tax should be.  It should be a law, however, that all taxes collected from tobacco sales are strictly for treatment of smoking related illnesses and smoking prevention.

That way we won't see an increase from $1.80/pound of tobacco to $25/pound to pay for health insurance for poor kids because the Republicans feel they have to protect the rich.

[SPC]

     No more than $0.

Same thing for all sales taxes.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

It is quite libertarian of me, I don't want people to pay unnecessary taxes.  Make retards pay them

[SPC]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

It is quite libertarian of me, I don't want people to pay unnecessary taxes.  Make retards pay them

So, "retards" aren't people because they take up a habit you disapprove of?

[DownWithTheLeft]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

It is quite libertarian of me, I don't want people to pay unnecessary taxes.  Make retards pay them

So, "retards" aren't people because they take up a habit you disapprove of?

Its not that they aren't people, its that the government needs to take advantage of their stupidity

[Franzl]

kind of like gambling, a tax on ignorance

[John Dibble]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

It is quite libertarian of me, I don't want people to pay unnecessary taxes.  Make retards pay them

So, "retards" aren't people because they take up a habit you disapprove of?

Its not that they aren't people, its that the government needs to take advantage of their stupidity

So if you had a leisure activity I thought was stupid, I would be perfectly justified in supporting an insanely high tax on it?

[SPC]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

It is quite libertarian of me, I don't want people to pay unnecessary taxes.  Make retards pay them

So, "retards" aren't people because they take up a habit you disapprove of?

Its not that they aren't people, its that the government needs to take advantage of their stupidity

Who's to judge what is stupid? Also, shouldn't a libertarian oppose government "taking advantage" of people?

[Ban my account ffs!]

Around $20 or so, $5 + a 300% tax

you would soon find that a majority of all cigarettes smoked in America were smuggled.


real libertarian, btw

It is quite libertarian of me, I don't want people to pay unnecessary taxes.  Make retards pay them

So, "retards" aren't people because they take up a habit you disapprove of?

Its not that they aren't people, its that the government needs to take advantage of their stupidity

Who's to judge what is stupid? Also, shouldn't a libertarian oppose government "taking advantage" of people?

DWTL lives in a small universe.  He is the only one in it.  Once you understand this, you'll understand his reasoning.