High Cigarette Taxes Don’t Stop the Poor From Smoking
September 29th, 2012
Cigarette taxes are typically justified by earmarking them to cover the increased health care costs for smokers, but I think they’re really imposed in an effort to make the cost so high that smokers will quit. In New York City smokers pay an insanely high cigarette tax rate, $6.46 per pack, yet a recent study shows “no decline in smoking among low-income smokers, despite tax increases since 2003”.
Link: http://dailycaller.com/…
[link]Josh Says:
October 1st, 2012 at 10:18 am
Smokers are cheaper not more expensive over their entire lifetime. Smoking kills you
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html?_r=0
[link]Chad Cloman Says:
October 1st, 2012 at 10:49 am
Indeed. But the smoking taxes I’ve voted on were earmarked for health care.