More Taxes On Tobacco Hurts Non-Smokers
There are certain groups in Western societies who believe that if governments are going to raise taxes on consumer products, certain products used by other groups in that society should be taxed.
For example, non-smokers think extra taxes on tobacco does not affect them. “Smoking is bad for your health, so if you don’t want to pay the higher taxes, stop smoking” or “It’ll get more people to quit” is their reasoning.
But let’s look at this with a realistic example – if the government adds $1 in extra tax to a pack of cigarettes and there are (approx) one hundred million packs of cigarettes sold in the country per month, that’s $100,000,000 being extracted from the economy of that country every month with no value added – no jobs are created, no businesses profit, etc. In fact, with less money in the overall economy, it’s $100,000,000 that no longer exists for people to buy products at other businesses, like food, clothing for their kids, less money to hire non-smokers to paint their houses or fix their cars… you can see where I’m going with this.
And the argument that banning tobacco or making it illegal is the answer is fundamentally flawed. Governments are not going to do that and if they did, it means they have to somehow replace that tax revenue cash-cow by taxing something else.
So I ask all the non-smoking nazis out there – would you be willing to pay higher taxes on gasoline or have an extra percentage point or two added to the GST or HST on products you buy to see my cigarettes taken away? Would you feel as righteous then?
Can you even see that connection? I can, even though the warnings on cigarette packs say that smoking destroys brain cells. As a non-smoker, what’s your excuse for not seeing it?
By Paul Short on 19/07/2012
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