If the government generates billions of dollars in tax revenues from tobacco companies, why does the government spend millions to tell folks to stop smoking?
24 Oct 2014 5 Comments
If the government generates billions of dollars in tax revenues from tobacco companies, why does the government spend millions to tell folks to stop smoking?
theconservativehillbilly 
Oct 24, 2014 @ 12:31:33
The government is a whore who will sleep with anybody who pays here.
Oct 24, 2014 @ 20:45:59
Do the math CHB, millions is less than billions.. It’s the old misdirection play. The appearance to the public is that the government is against tobacco use with regard to the health concerns of the individual user and the public in general, but in reality they couldn’t care less about either, so long as the money keeps pouring in. State and Federal taxes go up under the guise of future healthcare cost issues.. BS. The taxes go up because more people are quitting smoking and the government(s) need to keep up with that decline by increasing the tax revenue.
But that’s just the humble opinion of an ex-smoker (almost 5 years) who is aware of the burden that these taxes have on the average “Joe” who is still addicted.
Oct 25, 2014 @ 10:37:26
Because, health, politics, finance and healthcare (in your case insurance companies) are inextricably linked. In the British case as it is a state funded system and there are significant numbers of substantiated peer reviewed studies pointing out the adverse effects of smoking, it would appear to be a little lax to not point out that smoking causes lung cancer and contributes to heart disease, COPD, oesophageal cancer, bronchitis, emphysema and a few others too. Not everyone reads the Lancet.
Health promotion – so called – has a cut-off point. Our health authority budget for anti-smoking was minimal.
Oct 27, 2014 @ 01:50:11
They need the one to pay for the other one 😉
Oct 29, 2014 @ 13:24:15
Because it makes no sense…. What else does when it concerns the government, especially now. Kinda like legalizing pot because it was “harmless” and would create so much new revenue…. NOW, they come back and decide that it causes cognitive problems in young people … I don’t remember if they mentioned a cut off or not, but many of us old enough to remember friends who smoked heavily HS and college who either committed suicide eventually (more rare) or got to the point that they were unable to string together logical sentences and became increasingly boring until the ones I know have ended up in the “Stupidity” line.