3 ms·

Its hard to ban these things. Make the access to a banned thing too hard and then you get smuggling and contraband, make it easy and then its a joke. The right

by kamaal 6y ago

Its hard to ban these things. Make the access to a banned thing too hard and then you get smuggling and contraband, make it easy and then its a joke. The right way to go about banning these things is to put them just outside the reach of ordinary person's living wage. The think should be accessible, but its supply reduced and price a little high so that people begin to measure the pay off between buying and the pleasure they get from it. These things happen with Sugar too. The amount of lives ruined by easy access to a addictive thing like sugar is just unbelievable.

thaumasiotes 6y ago
> These things happen with Sugar too. The amount of lives ruined by easy access to a addictive thing like sugar is just unbelievable. The American price of sugar is generally around triple the price on the world market. How high do you think the delta needs to be before smuggling gets serious? Compare cigarettes, where smuggling -- just from state to state -- is already highly profitable.
- kamaal 6y ago
  The right question here is how affordable it is to Americans. I am not an American, but I have stayed in the US for a few years. But sugary drinks, confectionaries, desserts are affordable and easily accessible. Often inside 'healthy foods' like cereal and fruit juice. You can walk into a Walmart and Costco and end up buying lots of these things for very cheap. The tricky part is the companies seem to be making it up on scale. I mean like you can get some one to buy a really big box of Cereal by just having them compare the price of buying a several smaller boxes. Buy this small packet of lays for $2 Vs buy this large bag of lays worth 10 $2 packets for $6.5. Congrats, you just made the person buying the $2 lays packet stupid.
- belorn 6y ago
  > How high do you think the delta needs to be before smuggling gets serious? In my view a good estimate is to look at restaurants, as they are pretty good at figuring out the pain point of how expensive something can be and people will still buy it. If it cost more than that then the price is too high.
  - thaumasiotes 6y ago
    I think the issue is more complex than that. Cigarettes are a great example here -- they can be really expensive and people who are already smokers will still buy them. But there's still a limit to just how heavily you can tax cigarettes, because the higher the taxes are, the more profit smugglers can receive. They'll go out there to bring the price down even if smokers were willing to pay the higher prices, as long as their smuggling costs are covered.

by kamaal 6y ago

thaumasiotes 6y ago

> These things happen with Sugar too. The amount of lives ruined by easy access to a addictive thing like sugar is just unbelievable. The American price of sugar is generally around triple the price on the world market. How high do you think the delta needs to be before smuggling gets serious? Compare cigarettes, where smuggling -- just from state to state -- is already highly profitable.

kamaal 6y ago
The right question here is how affordable it is to Americans. I am not an American, but I have stayed in the US for a few years. But sugary drinks, confectionaries, desserts are affordable and easily accessible. Often inside 'healthy foods' like cereal and fruit juice. You can walk into a Walmart and Costco and end up buying lots of these things for very cheap. The tricky part is the companies seem to be making it up on scale. I mean like you can get some one to buy a really big box of Cereal by just having them compare the price of buying a several smaller boxes. Buy this small packet of lays for $2 Vs buy this large bag of lays worth 10 $2 packets for $6.5. Congrats, you just made the person buying the $2 lays packet stupid.
belorn 6y ago
> How high do you think the delta needs to be before smuggling gets serious? In my view a good estimate is to look at restaurants, as they are pretty good at figuring out the pain point of how expensive something can be and people will still buy it. If it cost more than that then the price is too high.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  I think the issue is more complex than that. Cigarettes are a great example here -- they can be really expensive and people who are already smokers will still buy them. But there's still a limit to just how heavily you can tax cigarettes, because the higher the taxes are, the more profit smugglers can receive. They'll go out there to bring the price down even if smokers were willing to pay the higher prices, as long as their smuggling costs are covered.