[BenignDesign]

Thank you. I've had my idiot moment for the day. Corrected the previous post.

[kiwi2]

gave up 35 days ago, and no labels cld never stop a smoker, 4 me it took one hell of a chest pain, to get me quitting,,,,,

[NeoTifa]

Chewing on your own jaw? Impressive.

[BenignDesign]

haha. damn right it's impressive!

everyone has their kink...

[NeoTifa]

Autocannibalism is mine.

[ishkabible]

im not sure but i think you can die from that... something about blood loss

[CTphpnwb]

The way I see it, the government is running a deficit at least in part because of smoking and its enormous cost in lost productivity and health care. With that in mind, I think the best thing to do is raise taxes to the point where the average smoker will finance these costs. If you finance a very conservative $200,000 illness over 30 years at 5%, that comes out to $1,073.64 per month. At a pack a day (and 30 days/month) that's $35.79 per pack in taxes that smokers should be paying. If they paid that then I'd have no problem removing these pictures.

[ishkabible]

i like the way you think

[Curtis Rutland]

Massive assumption there, CTphpnwb, that every smoker gets a disease, or that the government themselves is paying for every disease that every smoker gets. I don't have statistics for either, but they would drastically reduce that figure, considering that not everyone gets a disease, and of those they do, relatively few are a burden on the state itself, considering many have health insurance. You could claim that they're a drain on the public in general, since it's possible they raise insurance costs, but so do fat people and drinkers and skydivers and drivers (far more than any of the others, actually). So we'd better start raising massive taxes per month on everyone who owns a car, or takes public transportation. And anyone that doesn't eat a salad for every meal. And anyone that has a dangerous hobby.

[KYA]

Shit, we better up the cheese tax. These arteries ain't gonna clog themselves now.

I can't wait for the nanny state. Wouldn't want people to make their own decisions and live with the consequences.

[CTphpnwb]

No, the assumption is that the average smoker causes illness(es) to themselves or others that cost the government money in health expenses through systems like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc., and through lost taxes due to lower GDP. I would expect that the total of these expenses is much greater than $200K, and that the government's actual cost is probably higher.

As for fat people, sky divers, etc., I agree that they aren't paying enough to cover their costs either. Let's start with the smokers and then move on to the next most costly on the list.

KYA, on 21 June 2011 - 10:56 PM, said:

I can't wait for the nanny state. Wouldn't want people to make their own decisions and live with the consequences.

No one's advocating making them illegal. I'm only saying that if you want to buy them you should have to pay the full cost. That's part of the consequences.

Why should I have to subsidize your bad decisions?

[KYA]

Because it's part of your cradle to the grave socialist ideology.

[CTphpnwb]

Uh, I'm the one advocating that individuals take responsibility for their actions here. I'm advocating that we stop providing welfare for smokers. How do you get socialism out of that? It seems to me that it's your opposition to my plan that is socialistic.

[Nykc]

I feel the same way about Vegans....

[stayscrisp]

Second hand tofu?