Do You Think That Taxing Tobacco Products, With the Intention of Making Ppl Stop, or Not Start Using Same, Is?
Question by ET: Do you think that taxing tobacco products, with the intention of making ppl stop, or not start using same, is?
the correct approach?
In southern states, where they grow tobacco, and make cigarettes you can buy a carton for $ 27.50. In NY they are at or over $ 100 a carton. NY just added another $ 1.75 tax on a pack; July 1st.
Two previous, and the current Gov of NY have clearly stated that their purpose in taxing cigs is to stop ppl from continuing or starting to smoke. They have outlawed buying them over the internet, and they are working on mking the Indian Reservation charge the state taxes.
Best answer:
Answer by Fizzle
That isn’t the point of tobacco taxes. The point of tobacco taxes is to make money and if everyone quits, you aren’t going to make any money. I read a newspaper article years ago that gave figures on how many could be expected to quit smoking as taxes were raised to certain levels.
With any product, you can sell plenty if the price is low. As you raise the price, fewer will buy but your overall income will be greater because the price increase will overcome those that stop buying. Increase more, lose more customers, but your income still goes up because of the increased price to those who continue paying. There’s a curve, and at a certain point you’ll be making as much as you can. Past that maximum, your total income will drop because you’ve lost enough customers and the increased price paid by the ones who stay won’t make up for them. It’s called “what the market will bear.”
When I looked at the numbers in that newspaper article, it was clear that it wasn’t (as claimed) concerned with health and getting smokers to quit. It was a “what the market will bear” economic analysis. At what tax level can we make the most money?
This wouldn’t be an issue if those tax dollars were restricted to programs that help smokers to quit and to treat health problems brought on by smoking, but that isn’t how government works. I believe it was Robert Casey, Governor of Pennsylvania, who pushed through a 7 cent per pack tax increase a couple decades ago to fund health care for poor children. If that was a worthy cause, why were only smokers asked to pay for it? But it made that hypocrite look good–anti-smoking; pro-health care for poor children.
The real solution would be a constitutional amendment prohibiting the use of taxes raised from addictive substances for any purpose other than treating the addiction or health problems arising from that addiction. The first addiction we have to cure is that of using addictive substances to raise tax income. Otherwise, the government may as well start selling heroin. The drug dealer mentality is already well entrenched.
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