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You could do the same thing about cigarettes and cheeseburgers too. The problem is that it’s inherently a regressive approach where the brunt is borne by the lo
by koolba 5y ago
You could do the same thing about cigarettes and cheeseburgers too. The problem is that it’s inherently a regressive approach where the brunt is borne by the lowest income classes.
- robocat 5y agoCigarettes is a great example where there are highly taxed in some countries, so the US has a population of foreign experiments that the US can study to see the effects on the poor. In New Zealand a pack of 20 costs about NZD36. Minimum wage is NZD20 per hour here. Or adjusting to match median per capita incomes, that is about USD40 for a pack. Also see this list of world cigarette prices: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=17 https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings... Edit: Disclaimer: when you are old enough to have close friends with smoking related cancers and emphysema etcetera, using dollars to represent the future cost to yourself seems more reasonable. It also breaks the social dynamic of handing cigarettes around and getting others addicted - when a single cigarette is expensive to you, you don’t just offer them to others.
- ErikVandeWater 5y agoStep 1. Send a $50 check to everyone who earned less than 30k last year or who is unemployed now at the beginning of every month Step 2. Raise gas/burger/cigarette taxes