Lance Armstrong, cyclist phenom, is taking on big tobacco in California, a state where it is the cheapest place in the US to get hooked into tobacco addiction. He is urging Californians to impose a $1 tax on cigarettes. I agree and disagree with one of the greatest athletes of all time and one who has done great good in the world. ( This was written before the revelations about his doping - yet I still think he has done a lot of good).
I do not agree that taxing legal behavior no matter how disagreeable to some segments of out society is appropriate, whether it's smoking, drinking soda pop, drinking alcohol or using a condom. Moreover, we should not become silent partners with the tobacco industry to take advantage of the addictions of the weak, unwise or naive to fund our schools and other pet projects.
I do believe that it is absolutely justified to "tax" products like tobacco and alcohol that cause known and predictable harm and that the money collected be used to pay for the costs from damages resulting from those products.
Tobacco has almost no redeeming qualities or value as a legal product. Yet, because of the entrenched political and economic power of the drug pushers/dealers who market it (yes they are drug dealers and pushers--just legal ones) and since its harm is largely restricted to ravishing the health of those who use it, we tolerate it as a society. Nevertheless, its cost in healthcare expenses and disability payments to treat and care for its many addicts are born by all of us.
Therefore, taxes are justified and should be imposed to pay for all of these costs so that the price it bears on the Market is equal to the harm it causes which is in fact its true cost. All I ask is that its users and dealers pay for that expense.
Loren M. Lambert © June 3, 2012
I do not agree that taxing legal behavior no matter how disagreeable to some segments of out society is appropriate, whether it's smoking, drinking soda pop, drinking alcohol or using a condom. Moreover, we should not become silent partners with the tobacco industry to take advantage of the addictions of the weak, unwise or naive to fund our schools and other pet projects.
I do believe that it is absolutely justified to "tax" products like tobacco and alcohol that cause known and predictable harm and that the money collected be used to pay for the costs from damages resulting from those products.
Tobacco has almost no redeeming qualities or value as a legal product. Yet, because of the entrenched political and economic power of the drug pushers/dealers who market it (yes they are drug dealers and pushers--just legal ones) and since its harm is largely restricted to ravishing the health of those who use it, we tolerate it as a society. Nevertheless, its cost in healthcare expenses and disability payments to treat and care for its many addicts are born by all of us.
Therefore, taxes are justified and should be imposed to pay for all of these costs so that the price it bears on the Market is equal to the harm it causes which is in fact its true cost. All I ask is that its users and dealers pay for that expense.
Loren M. Lambert © June 3, 2012
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