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In that sense, cigarette taxes are also regressive. But extremely high taxes on cigarettes have helped a lot of people quit and deterred people from starting to
by cimmanom 8y ago
In that sense, cigarette taxes are also regressive. But extremely high taxes on cigarettes have helped a lot of people quit and deterred people from starting to smoke in the first place. In the long run, that helps people avoid spending money on cigarettes at all. Not to mention the long term savings on health care.
It’s not like soda is something one can’t live without. If you can’t afford soda, drink water. It’s better for you and will also save you on health care costs in the long run.
- jessaustin 8y agoOn balance, the taxes may have played a role in decreasing smoking. It would be foolish to pretend that they didn't also play a role in some poor kids not getting new shoes for school or enough to eat during the summer. Some of us have enough empathy to care about that; for others humans are just economic knobs to be economically twisted.