Are there other band message boards

[vixnix]

Do you know many people who've quit because of it though? I know people who have cut back, and a lot who just go without other "luxury" items like bananas and butter.

It's an attack on the poor, these days. Cigarettes are one of the few pleasures available to the poor. Take them away and what you have is sugar, and last time I checked obesity now caused more health costs to the economy than smoking, and being obese with diabetes was worse for us than being long term smokers, but still, no tax on sugar.

That's because when they take away sugar, the revolution will occur. And the capitalist pig overlords don't have their clone armies ready just yet.

[FlamingGlobes]

Wait, bananas are a luxury? Those are like the cheapest thing I buy (and I buy tons of them for that reason).

[FlamingGlobes]

Also, don't tell me poor people don't have pleasures

[FlamingGlobes]

There's always pegging, y'know.

[vixnix]

They are here, because Australia protects its local market by forbidding imports from Ecuador, etc. and because labour laws are quaintly human-centred in Australia (for the time being), bananas are usually around $3/kg. A few years ago there were terrible floods in the banana growing regions, so prices were as high as $7/kg.

[vixnix]

We go through 2-6 bananas per day and that costs us about $10/week.

[FlamingGlobes]

Wow, that's a lot of banana-pegging.

[FlamingGlobes]

But seriously, bananas are like 39 cents per pound at the grocery store where I live.

[FlamingGlobes]

USA! USA! USA!

[FlamingGlobes]

I love how every single thread in this section has been derailed by page 2. I can't even keep track of what conversation is happening in what thread.

[FlamingGlobes]

I love this place.

[ilikeplanets]

Bananas are dirt cheap here too. Everything is cheap here because people only earn $7 an hour. And are dirt poor.

[ilikeplanets]

The people around here will buy Sudafed over bananas though =/

[reprise85]

where i work bananas are 69 cents per lb. at aldi they are like, 44 cents a lb or something

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by vixnix

Do you know many people who've quit because of it though? I know people who have cut back, and a lot who just go without other "luxury" items like bananas and butter.

It's an attack on the poor, these days. Cigarettes are one of the few pleasures available to the poor. Take them away and what you have is sugar, and last time I checked obesity now caused more health costs to the economy than smoking, and being obese with diabetes was worse for us than being long term smokers, but still, no tax on sugar.

That's because when they take away sugar, the revolution will occur. And the capitalist pig overlords don't have their clone armies ready just yet.

Sin taxes on cigs is probably a huge factor in why smoking rates have plummeted in the US over the last half century

[buzzard]

Coincidentally, the media has been running a story about how the recent increases in sumptuary tax are being reflected in rising incidents of theft and, with that and a similar rise in duty-free sales, growth in the black market for cigarettes.

[vixnix]

Yeah I dunno. I think the sharpest drop came during the years of smokefree campaigning when smoking became a dirty and renegade thing to do. I didn't smoke until I considered myself a rebel, and most of my friends never started.




The period in the U.S. with the sharpest drop off rate does seem to happen at the same time as the sharpest rise in obesity though...?

[vixnix]

actually, that graph is just retarded, never mind

[vixnix]

having said that, people with no other pleasure in their lives do turn to drugs and comfort food. And sex. So if you take away a drug, expect people without recourse to other pleasures, to eat and have sex more often.

[ilikeplanets]

Life is pain so find the beauty

[redbreegull]

I'm not commenting on the morality of sin tax and yes it does hit poor people the hardest, but I also think it has been a huge deterrent. If you want to change people's behavior, hit them in the wallet. I would like to believe the education element did it all by itself but that just doesn't seem likely. During the same period, the war on drugs unleashed an almost equal amount of anti-drug propaganda, and I don't think there is evidence that it caused people to smoke less weed, for instance.

[buzzard]

Bananas are $2.47USD/kg from our biggest supermarket chain, though it's always the wiser move to gather your fruit and vegetables from an independent local that efficiently reallocates the gains from employment fraud to savings for you.

Weirdly, the online store for that major seller has a produce category labeled as "Ethnic Vegetables," containing only garlic shoots and bok choy. It's a bad look when you can find Italian Parsley in the regular section.

[redbreegull]

I dunno I had more than one professor use cig taxes as an example of tax policy seriously altering public consumption habits or shaping the market. I don't have evidence on hand so I would have to go read up on this, but I was always taught it was the taxes that killed smoking in the US, not the DARE posters

[redbreegull]

bananas are very cheap here as well

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by redbreegull

I'm not commenting on the morality of sin tax and yes it does hit poor people the hardest, but I also think it has been a huge deterrent. If you want to change people's behavior, hit them in the wallet. I would like to believe the education element did it all by itself but that just doesn't seem likely. During the same period, the war on drugs unleashed an almost equal amount of anti-drug propaganda, and I don't think there is evidence that it caused people to smoke less weed, for instance.

When I came to the U.S. though, it was 1999, and cigarettes were still $3/pack in most places, and sometimes there were 2-for-1 sales. You could also get free cigarettes at youth events, music events and stuff. Write your name and email address down for two packs of camels, etc.

At that same time, in NZ, packs were about $7 I guess? Maybe a bit more.

If the graph is right, smoking rates had already dropped considerably by 1999 and at that point, in my opinion, cigarettes were still pretty cheap. Not pricey enough to be a luxury item IMO.

[Run To Me]

What about eternal darkness for the lamecube? Was hoping to score some b'nas and smoke a cig or 2 while play something scary for Halloween

[ilikeplanets]

Cigarettes were still $3 in Texas when I started smoking in 2005

[ilikeplanets]

And bananas were 39 cents for a pound!

[ilikeplanets]

Minimum wage was $5.35 though, wtf is that

[redbreegull]

Originally Posted by vixnix

When I came to the U.S. though, it was 1999, and cigarettes were still $3/pack in most places, and sometimes there were 2-for-1 sales. You could also get free cigarettes at youth events, music events and stuff. Write your name and email address down for two packs of camels, etc.

At that same time, in NZ, packs were about $7 I guess? Maybe a bit more.

If the graph is right, smoking rates had already dropped considerably by 1999 and at that point, in my opinion, cigarettes were still pretty cheap. Not pricey enough to be a luxury item IMO.

again I'd have to actually research it, but that is not the gist I got from school.

$3 makes it sound cheaper than it actually was though because that's closer to $5 today. Consider that 30 years before you came to the US the minimum wage was higher when you adjust for inflation and a pack of cigarettes was like 50 cents or cheaper.