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:yes: I totally agree. High taxes and no help from the state whatsoever.
But it isnt limiting their use, social pressure is largely the reason people dont smoke anymore, that and the health concerns.
What I am suggesting is that there is a balance, you need to tax cigs highly, but if you tax them too highly you just fill the market with smuggled cigs instead - these are more dangerous and help fund other crime.
Why didnt the government think of that, telling drug smugglers its against the law definitely works, it would certainly stop people smuggling cigs.
I don't think single people/couples without kids should get help, but i think you should be taxed more fairly. Less people use less tbh.
How ridiculous of you to make such a confident assertion, do you have evidence for this?
If something is more expensive, the use of it will decrease in the vast majority of cases.
Yes there is a balance to be had, but to the best of my knowledge, most people still get their fags in fairly conventional ways, though I may be wrong.
Oh yes. If excessive taxes rid Britain of all those 'undesirable' smokers Britain will be a much nicer place. What a nice, tolerant person you are.
Same solution as congestion charges, taxing alcohol, taxing big cars etc.
What has tolerance got to do with it? No-one is banned from smoking, it is just made expensive so as to discourage people and to help pay for the harm done to themselves and others.
You can commit a slow suicide all you want, as long as you pay for the mess you leave behind when you choke it......
Excellent idea and if you don't have children then you should get a state pension in the future either, as it's my kids who will be paying for it. Oh and don't use any of the services either because they will be paying for and staffing that.
The reason that the state supports families is because they are the future of this country.
Only on the higher rate of corporation tax though, he is increasing the lower rate from the current 19p to 22p by 2009.
Will there be a state pension in the future? Will it have any value?
If that really is the idea, then it is poorly executed. The relationship between CO2 emission and gas-guzzling is not absolute, and more than half of the issue is being completely ignored. What bit is that? Well, cars made before 2000 still work on the old system. So an old, inefficient, large-engined car that pollutes loads will pay less tax than a newer, more efficient vehicle. Environment my arse.
Assuming I have the bog standard new tax allowance etc.
ps I like how news reports say how smokers and drinkers will be x amount of £'s worse off, surely they'd be far better off not spending a fiver on a pack of tabs every couple of days.
The standard personal allowance is set to increase to £5225 p/a - which is an extra £190 tax free for 07/08 but even though, I've just worked out I will pay an extra £176 in tax :crying:
Well I suppose we'd be all financially 'better off' if we didn't spend money on things we like and enjoy.
There will always be something, unless the Tories or Brown are in for a while...
I suspect regular flyers or car drivers leave 'a mess behind' several thousand times bigger than smokers could possibly manage. Do you advocate slapping a £300 tax on every flight and an extra £2 tax on every litre of fuel? That would bring it in line with the percentage of taxes slapped on fags, and imagine how much of a mess could be avoided if millions of people were priced out of the sky and the roads.
Tax needs to be far higher on fags to achieve the desired disincentive effect because it is addictive, and thus demand for it is highly inelastic.......
And I hope you'll agree damage done by car fumes is far greater than damage done by cigarette smoke.
Subjective opinion, not fact.
Smoking is not 'utterly pointless' to the millions of adults that enjoy it. Should we tax chocolate and fatty foods to a very high degree? Are they 'utterly pointless'?
Food is completely different, we need to eat, sometimes we eat the 'wrong' thing but eating (and drinking) are still natural and essential things to do, smoking is not........
We can all agree though that smoking is a pointless way to die. And a painful one.
Nonsense. I've broken my dependence yet still enjoy the odd cigarette now and again.
Interesting idea. So, do non smokers stay alive then, or do they also eventually die? Are the causes of their deaths less pointless?
:yes:
Yep, reason why a lot of people smoke, because they enjoy the actually act and taste of smoking. If it was just nicotine addiction it'd be a lot easier. to stop.
No more pointless than any other way to die. People enjoy it - let them do it.
As the great Bill Hicks said, non-smokers die every day. I know some of you non-smokers entertain some sort of eternal-life fantasy so let's just pop that little bubble right now.