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Coffee And Cigarettes
With Greece taxing nearly 90% of the price on a pack of cigarettes, perhaps a far more reliable indicator of sovereign health (ironically) than rating agencies is just how much in sin tax a given country withholds. If that is the case, France really should be worried. Also: don't be surprised if the next sauna you go to has a Starbucks outlet.
Source: GS
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Where do you stand on paying legions of internet trolls to go forth and spread the good news of government online?
When your message gets a little stale, co-opt the opposition's tune for awhile before you come back on with the Socialism?
You are 100% in support of stuffing taxpayers dollars in your pocket, can we agree on that?
Selective attention tax for Ritalyn subsidies.
LTER
Damn I've had to green you three times! What you been smokin bro? Or drinkin?
Usually all you get from me are red arrows. Get some more of that stuff.
I'm anti-Rand and anti-government. Balance.
Balance? not. Maybe Jekyll and Hyde Syndrome.
The checkbook always balances when taxpayers $$ are coming in.
You will notice a steady stream of anti-Libertarian/anti von Mises/anti Freedom trolls posting on ZH forever. They can't just come out and say "I'm a Commie!" they have to add nuance, they have to be subtle, so now it's "I am anti government and anti Rand"
Sure you are buddy, sure you are! Your "freedom" includes you pointing a gun in my face. No thanks Let Them Eat Freedom.
I know it's kind of freaking me out. I'm not used to giving Rand an up arrow. I think he's an imposter.
I've up arrowed you many times. I down arrow infrequently, but I may have hit you once or twice when you were particularly Randian.
P.S. I will go on record again. There will be no Fed QE in June. They want the O'Romner. Not because they don't love the big O. They do. But they have other issues.
We'll bring you over to the darkside yet ;->
Another up arrow, sheesh!
And what so great about the Oromner compared to the Obamner? Two sides of the same coin IMHO. Ones white, the other black. They both back the same things and are backed by the same people, banksters included. I consider myself a republican and do not want to vote for Romney. I'm almost ready to vote for Obama as a complaint to the republican party for picking mittens in the first place.
I filled out one of them Have dinner with Obama thingies, just for the fun of it. ;-)
I keep hitting the link just so Obummer has to fork over money to
Tyler for the click through. :->
"They" don't care which of the candidates gets in, they are all bought and paid for. the only one who couldn't be bought is Ron Paul, and if you noticed, "They" got a little excited just at the thought of him running at all!
If cigarettes were taxed at the manufacturer's level like alcohol, it would be much more difficult to get black market Marlboros.
Cigarette taxes have never been enough to compensate for all the health costs, fires, smoke detectors (I have to have them in my bedrooms even though I don't smoke), etc. How much does a forest fire started by a cigarette butt cost? Deaths? Yep, lots of them and not all of them are smokers.
You don't actually believe government wants people to quit do you? Cigarettes, like booze, is a good source of revenue for the government. They are easy targets because people get all wee weed up about them. They have a good con going, why would they want it to end? They pretend like they are doing something constructive to satisfy people like yourself, while at the same time give themselves a revenue stream that continues with each generation.
No, I don't think the government wants the revenue to disappear. But there would be more effective tax collection if it was done like the alcohol tax and usually the government likes cheap and effective tax collection.
You've got it completely ass backwards. The more taxes that are imposed on the sin products, the more likely there will be a black market springing up for them.
Governments will never outlaw smoking, because that will only bring on a Prohibition-like black market in a scope you can't imagine. And governments like all that revenue they take in from the taxes on sin products. Even if they raise the taxes, those who are addicted will still find a way to get their fix, so that only means more revenue.
And, as more and more turn to other sources for those cigarettes and the tax revenues go down what does our government do? Raise the taxes again to make up the shortfall forcing yet others to find alternate suppliers. Vicious circle.
Cohiba, and some "Bush"!
I spoke with the Minister of Health in Manitoba in the '80's when there was talk of legalizing prositition. I looked at her and said, "You guys have the booze, the numbers (gambling) and now you are looking to control the broads. There is no difference between you and the mob, except you know what will happen to you if you cross the mob. Who knows what will happen when you guys are crossed."
Needless to say she didn't like the analogy.
I would much rather have booze and gambling be legislated, taxed, and regulated by the state instead of it made illegal which creates a notably opportunity for a black market. Only a delusional person would argue alcohol shouldn't be regulated at all.
Prostitution is much more complex for several reasons and the effects of countries that have legalized it have had mixed results. I would favor decriminalization of it in the US and instead only going after pimps/madams instead. Save resources and concentrate on those who really run it as a criminal enterprise.
The cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes in Australia has far surpassed that $12 mark (even back in 2010). The most popular cigarettes (Winfield and Dunhill from seeing what people purchase) are supplied by British American Tobacco Australia, and are all above $12. The info here (http://www.c-store.com.au/industry/tobacco.php) shows the "recommended" cost. Also, seeing as though this is 2010 data, the prices are even higher than that now.
Additionally, all cigarette packs are hidden in cupboards so no one can see their packaging, because the government doesn't want people to see the packaging. The Australian Government even went so far as to say that all cigarettes should come in olive green packaging so they don't look so enticing and people don't buy them as much. That didn't work too well.
Arturo Fuentes is my cigar of choice.
I prefer Fuentes as well. But mostly when it comes to stogies I'll smoke anything. I recently bought 80 sticks from the Cigars International. It was 5 each of 16 different brands, all in the Churchill size, for $100.00
Damn good deal. ;-)
Still available. http://www.cigarsinternational.com/proddisp.asp?item=SP-CIDD195&stext=bender%20ender
Yes I have a humidor big enough to stash 80 cigars. It holds 20 boxes or 40 bundles. ;-)
I do the same thing. I like to try a lot of different brands. And I keep a good selection on hand for guests. But I'll take a Fuentes over any other cigar.
Beautiful Cigar. Purple punch, old Partigas, Tube Cohibas? I'm just getting started! ( Macanados)!
I run www.buydiscountcigars.com for a living. If your brand is there, let me know and I will hook you up with free shipping.
Dutch Master Presidents
the trueFinns are overcaffeinated!
that american stat must be the per week number...
Cuban Tobacco/ kills Domenican Tobacco. A Great Cohiba! That beautiful Orange Wrapper!
And the UK taxes like 80% of the price of fuel that is a
necessitybut cigarettes aren't?
Maybe that's why they drive toy cars and have bad teeth!?
Under the new world order you will have a chip implanted in your penis (or vagina) and you will be taxed by the stroke, on a progressive (naturally) rate. The more strokes, the higher the tax.
I guess that means teenagers will become the most common cause of bankruptcy...
Buckaroo Bill Clinton is in for a tax hit then
...and wifey is not going to be pleased at all the extra-curricular/marital activity
Yeah, but they'll both be happy with how little She pays on that tax.
Anyway to trade that going long anal intercourse?
at under 50% i'm mighty impressed with US taxes on this issue
still a move to Saudis 30% tax regime looks on the cards for me
i absolutely hate this State robbery on booze, ciggies, petrol etc, this is nothng short of crime (criminal theft)
more young people.. 20 and younger
smoke pot than cigerettes ....
For some reason, i just don't like pot. Not to put it down.
I love cigars! If you want to smoke weed it's ok ! I'll smoke a Macanado!
That works...not only will your cigar aroma cover the smell of weed, but the smoke'll keep the mosquitoes at bay!
Mosquitos? What are those things you speak of? I live in Oklahoma, and have not been bit by one of them in years. Compliments of a lit cigar.
That's True. We're making progress.
Study: More Teens Smoking Pot Than Cigarettes
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/11/study-more-teens-smoking-pot-than-cigarettes/
Price of fags in the UK:
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/Shopping/FindProducts.aspx?Query=marlboro
£7.39 apparently.
I stopped smoking because I was forced to stand out in the rain to do so. It became less fun.
When I started in 1987 it was £1.53, when I stopped in 2005-ish it was around £5 a pack.
House prices have followed the same trajectory. I am poorer now than I was then.
They have patches for fag addicts.
Really! They have a patch that will convert homos into heteros? WOW, I did not know that. Judging from the world now-a-days, I don't think they are selling much of it.
You're confusing it with a butt patch.
I thought they were called butt plugs????
Grow my own coffee. Smokes are 80c a pack of 20. Laughing.
I won't have to pay for your cancer treatments either. Even better.
where? Sounds like my money will go 15x as far
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsUe-BzbENM
Little Cigars.. still (so far...) less than $2.00 a pack. Marlboros are $4+ a pack in WV.
check out my site www.buydiscountcigars.com, lots of filtered/little cigars for cheap with fast shipping.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O05uZFpL3dQ
Miss You Jerry.
The circumference of a cigar matters?
The bigger the better. When bigger the maker can wrap more different types of tobacco within the same wrapper and binder leafs. The "blend" is different depending on where the filler leaves were obtained. Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, Jamaica, etc. Funny thing is that one leaf, the wrapper, has more affect on the flavor than everything else. Wrapper leaf from Cameroon Africa are, perhaps, my favorites at this time.
Yeah, I love my stogies. I know all the lingo. ;-)
Just so long as it is not so big it starts to resemble a pecker, I am for it. A one inch cigar is a 64 ring gauge, too big for my taste. I like 50s, just around 3/4" or so is perfect.
What ever became of Lewinsky?
She seems to have gone into hiding after smoking Clinton's cigar. :-0
cigarettes were .35 cents per pack for marlboro reds when i started smoking.
driving downtown and stopped at the offramp at a redlight and a bum asked if he could get one of those. I said, are you fuckin' kiddin me, do you know how much these things
cost nowadays? he raised his head and nodded, yep, uh huh, you right.
deflator All that matters, is thefact!
You quit killing yourself everyday! I love Cigars!
Tobacco was cheap until the States hit the 'jackpot' with the 'Cig Settlement' and then the price rocketed skyward. You honestly think Big Tobacco was going to let go of billions of dollars without recouping that money somewhere? The States spent it on everything from 'Stop Smoking' programs(bill-bored anyone?) to just throwing it into the General Funds. Not unlike the the mortgage settlement fiasco. States 'win', taxpayers lose. And the only other ones winning are the cockroach lawyers who take 30-40% of settlements PLUS expenses for class actions and BS cases like these. Kill the lawyers, add in some politicians, along with some CEO's and see how far prices will drop with free market principals. And for Pete's sake, stop the f'in drug wars...who thought up this concept? Oh, wait, the .Gov that serves YOU...hah!
Best smoking deal? A pipe.....sure a nice briar will set you back $200.....but take care of it and it's your old friend for 20+ years (I've got one I've had for 30+ years). 5 lbs of an excellent aged Virginia blend can be had for $150.....you have to be a chimney to smoke that much in a year. And.......pipe smoke draws the women like a magnet.
not to plug it, but it looks tasty.
I have a nice briar churchwarden and smoking some triple aged virgina blend is sho enough sexy as hell in terms of the many smells you get out of it. Women love that shit. I will attest to what this dude is saying.
I have smoked the most beautiful, Partigas/ torpedoes. I should translate.
Have you ever smoked a cigar with a purple wraper? Wound @ 8 guage?
La gloria cubana series r, #7, natural. um, um good...
How can Greece produce a pack of cigarettes for half the cost of other countries including ones that don't grow any tobacco? This makes no sense. If this is the case, they could solve their financial problems easily by exporting cigarettes.
Interesting to note the bevy of smokers at ZH.... No wonder why I like you guys so much.... Add me to the list.... Oh, and coffee... fuggetabout it.... CHECK me off there too!
Nothing like a cup of strong coffee and a good cigar to start the day. I like my coffee so strong it makes your hair stand up just smelling it. ;-)
And end of day some Wild Turkey 101 and a good cigar mellows me right on down. :-0
Some e-cheers go out to you my friend. Keep it real.
Strong coffee and a good cigar are a must, but I can do without the Wild Turkey. My drink of preference is Crown Royal.
Sweet. I love diping my stogie in Cognac!
Substitute Johnnie Walker Black for the Crown Royal and I'm right there with you.
Thanks for the idea. I'll check it out. I was thinking about something else though?
Patrone xau/ Mac/Lellon single malt. Teaspoon of sugar.
I'm on a Jet to Queensland right now.
Brazilian coffee in the morning (thick like mud) and any tobacco, it's whats for breakfast!
Greece being next door to the cigarette smuggling capitals of the world, Montenegro and Albania, many Greeks no doubt have some relief from the local tax.
There is a brisk business in Andorra selling ciggies to the French also.
Yeah the higher the price of taxed cigarettes the more the untaxed cigarettes are lit. Plus Greece grows an excellent tobacco itself so the Greek smoker can also puff the cheap way using their local stuff.
When Vietnam starts injecting Dong is when I start worrying.
At 90% tax it just indicates how little there is left to bring the humungous national debt under control.
Or will the 10% not taxed be enough to cover the interest on the ever increasing debt.
Call me a traditionalist, but a bagel w/ cream cheese, a cup of french pressed dark roast, a couple of smokes, and the WSJ market section make a lovely breakfast. Remember kids, read the commodities trends, peek at how the metals are doing, maybe even look at the stocks... just don't read the opinion pieces.
This is a wired ass world we turned into. I think coffee and stoges are among the priorities for plenty of people. They'll pay any price for em. Once they're expensive enough, they might be novelty items.
Given by all the smokers on here, I would tend to bet there are a ton of overweight/obese people who are either head to, pre-diabetic, or diabetic.
You'd be wrong there chummy. At 50 years I am 6'2" 170 pounds. Got a six-pack on my chest from daily abdominal exercises. Have a well-used weight bench in my garage. Full set of dumbells from 10 to 50 pounds that I use while doing sit-ups and crunchies. 10 pound ankle weights that I wear while doing chin-ups and pull-ups. Have two bicycles, one a BIANCHI 12 speed on a fluid trainer. The other a german-made FOCUS 27 speed road bike. I have a set of hand grip strength exercisers from 60 to 360 pounds, that are well-used. I am at the 200 pound level currently.
Willing to bet there are quite a few more in good shape besides me. I like my sin stuff, but in moderation. Going on 51 next month, got to go easy on that stuff these days. Stogies are like two a week for me, not daily.
Betcha I am in better shape at 50, than you are. ;-)
Down arrow for being in great shape! LOL!!!!! ;-)
+1 For taking care of yourself and still enjoying the finer things of life.
For not having your "six pack" on your abs, like the other anatomically correct children.
You, of course are correct. Been tipping the glass a bit tonight. I'll give ya a green arrow for that one, since I cannot edit now, it having been replied to.
But I do consider my "chest" to be from the belt up. I know it's not technically correct, it's just me. A little old hick/hayseed from Oklahoma. Of course I lived in California for 26 years, and prior to that, New Jersey for 15.
Been there done that.
I magine you don't smoke. Generally those Americans who smoke by the time they enter 50s are a train wreck. Now this first hand from health insurance days. High blood pressure and typically on statins and other fun stuff.
Yeah I am in good shape. Probably not as good as you but I'm 6'0' and 180 at 35. Certainly no six-pack but I like to get my share of running and biking in during the week with the gym 3-4/week time permitting due to family needs. Little meat, most fish and lots of veggies. Really like to cook and garden. Just don't have enough time to grow nearly as big a garden as I would like. Most smaller stuff including tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and fava beans with some herbs.
Exercise isn't the big deal as much as diet though. You can be a work out fiend but if you eat crap and don't drink enough water after 30 you really notice. Notice it already when I travel for work and forced to eat less nutritious stuff often that is more processed.
Read further above, I smoke a couple of cigars a week (not little ones either), have a nightly drink or three, morning coffee every day. But I guess you could chalk all of that up to moderation, I do not overdo any of it. My blood pressure right now is 116/74, pulse 68. Got one of those wrist monitors.
A person that only smokes a couple of cigars a week is not a smoker. He's just a nuisance.
I smoke them at my own home, not out in poblic, you serf you. My favorite time to smoke one is when I have to power down the computers because of storms. Mother Natures show is so impressive, I love a good thunderstorm. A cigar and an adult beverage, sittin on the front porch, taking in the lightning and thunder.
Just how is that a nuisance?
One who smokes in the privacy of his own home is much less of a nuisance than one who doesn't. There's still the fire hazard, I suppose. It's doubtful that your two per week will affect the public costs of taking care of you much. A real two pack a day ciggie person is another matter.
I'll give you green for common sense.
BUT: I do not smoke in my home, I smoke outside, on the front porch, or in the garage. Got a fire extinguisher handy in the laundry room, right off the garage. Fire hazard? Not likely.
"Public costs?" There are no public costs to anything he does, unless he gets a government job like you FS. Just because the .gov uses the convenient excuse of medical care to justify stealing great sums of money from the productive class, does not mean one is connected to the other
The only public cost, is government.
not sure about that. from what I can tell, 50 years ago, 60% of people smoked and 10% of people were obese. now we got like 10% of people smoke and 60% obese.
Also, 50 years ago, we had 10% of kids diagnosed mentally retarded. 15% behavioral disorders. 1% autism. kids ended up in orphanages, short bussed, child labor and/or prison.
Now we have 1%,1% and 20% of kids autistic spectrum disorder, and ton of tax exempt charities to "help" them.
Shit. I'm turning 49 next month and I've been doing p90x for 4 years straight. I'm more ripped than any kid half my age. But I still like the daily coffee, occasional drink, and fine cigar. It just takes the discipline to moderate.
That comment is both presumptuous and telling.
A lot of health issues are genetic. Some of us are just lucky that way some of us aren't.
Some people work out because "it's good for you". Some of us do it because we enjoy it.
I drink. I smoke. I do drugs. I fuck around (a lot;-))...but...I also bike ride around 50 miles a week. I swim almost daily. I play basketball and tennis regularly and I box. And I do that because I enjoy it. It's fun for me. It makes me happy. I like the competition.
I'm in my mid 40's, 5'11" 160lbs and less than 5% body fat. And I eat whatever I want whenever I want. No calorie counting, no temptation refused. That's just genetics. Nobody in my family is overweight. And we all eat in a very care free way.
You sound like you work very hard at keeping weight off. You must deprive yourself of certain foods...eat in a particular "caloric range"...and you sound like you exercise the exact amount your doctor recommends or the latest Mens Health article told you to....but it's all for naught because you don't really enjoy it and your genetic composition is gonna take your body whichever way it wants to...no matter what you do.
Welcome to the layer cake chubby!
Not sure if your comment was directed at me or not? I enjoy what I do, and have been doing it since I graduated high school in 79. If I did not enjoy it, would I have kept at it for all of these years. I am always finding something new to wratchet it up another notch, such as doing sit-ups with weights held behind my head, 50 pounds currently.
I have no personal care physician, none. Have not been ot a doctor for anything since June 1986. Dentist included and still got all my teeth.
Oh I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. I do not count calories and do not subscribe to Men's health.
The rest of my fmily is over-weight and all have their little tray of pills to take every day. I take vitamins only.
WTF is layer cake???? I personally like a nice lemon maringue pie with lots of whipped cream. HAd a large slice just about one hour ago. ;-)
No that wasn't directed at you. I enjoyed your post.
Get a physical. I'm betting your arteries are just as fucked as the next guy's.
Maybe so, who knows? AFAIAC, if I do not know about a problem, it isn't a problem. I am not afraid of death, and do nothing to prolong my stay here on Earth. I ride a motorcycle, drive a real hotrod pick up truck (modified Ford Lightning), smoke, drink, whatever.
My motto: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
See ya on the other side.
Based on your other coments made on this article, I'm betting you have no idea wtf you're talking about.
Genetic disposition? Bullcrap. Very few people have issues have legit metabolic issues that cause them to cause excess weight. It's a math issue.
Now losing weight is another entirely because we are hard-wired to store weight and conserve extra calories for lean times.
As for eating whatever foods you want, yeah good luck with that. Again, it doesn't matter how much you exercise if you don't eat properly & within reason. You easy could have an unfavorable cholesterol count or high triglyercides if you don't watch what you eat especially as you get older. If you eat a high amount of saturated fat and large amounts of processed meat, I would imagine you already have the beginning stages of atheroscherlosis in your arteries if you are in your mid-40s. Maybe even a noticeable blockage.
I'm convinced that nicotine counteracts and/or offsets the effects of aging on the brain (possibly even Alzheimers). When is the last time you spoke to a smoker over the age of 70 who wan't relatively mentally alert and sharp for their age?
My Father-In-Law is 73, smokes cheap ciggs like a smoke stack. He's still got it. He came over to the house over Memorial Day weekend and helped me and his daughter do some heavy duty yardwork, i.e back yard re-modeling. Doesn't cough or hack, nothing. Probably an anomaly regards smoking, but yeah, it happens.
Its one of those faustian deals. It is true (nicotine and brain chemistry_. But at the same time, statistically, lots of smokers kick it before 70, so the ones you meet are not nessecarily a representative sample.
Necessarily. Got your c and s backwards.
Just being a spelling nazi here. ;-)
I'll give myself that first red arrow!
Couldn't you just use a nicotine patch to get all the benefits of nicotine without the drawbacks of smoking?
There are no benefits to nicotine (it is quite literally the stupidest high ever invented and that includes spinning until you fall over and puke).
And those patches are just as expensive (especially if your insurance doesn't want to pony up for your lifestyle choices).
Nicotine As A Treatment For Memory Loss
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/video/nicotine-treatment-memory-loss-15306827
Dude, you need to keep up on your "science".
Catastrophic brain injury after nicotine insecticide ingestion.
Rogers AJ, Denk LD, Wax PM.
Division of Emergency Medicine, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA.
Abstract
Much attention has been paid to the long-term toxic and carcinogenic effects of nicotine-containing substances, particularly tobacco. Although rare, acute ingestions of large amounts of nicotine can produce rapid and dramatic toxicity. We present a case of an ingestion of a nicotine sulfate solution by a 15-year-old boy resulting in hypoxia and irreversible encephalopathy. The diagnosis of acute nicotine toxicity potentially could be delayed due to the fact that nicotine and cotinine are so commonly found on drug screens that they are considered "normal variants."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14980338
DON'T EVER eat Nicotine Insecticide!!! There should be a law against this.
LMAO!
Seriously? Instead find a citation that measures the difference between blood levels of cigarette smokers and cigar smokers. Not a nicotinic insecticide OD.
That's like comparing wounds made from a .22 and a cannon shot. Yep, they were both made from ballistic missiles.
Maroon.
Some people are just not clued in on stogies. You know that, unlike what the Drive-by Media spins, a properly made cigar has almost no nicotine. A properly made cigar is ten years old or more before it hits your hot hands. The tobacco has been fermented two, sometimes three times to eliminate the nicotine, its been aged in barns, aged in humidors before and after rolling. It stays on the plant way longer than cigarette and chew tobacco.
We who smoke cigars do not do it for the nicotine high. We do it for the flavor, especially when combined with a good coffee or adult beverage. We do it for the relaxation: you do not light a cigar and smoke it in five minutes. You light it and savor it for hours.
It's an aquired taste, to be sure. But once aquired, it is a nice little thing to do a few times a week.
No patchs for us stogie smokers.
When was the last time you spoke to a smoker over 60? Without a trach-tube I mean.
I've seen plenty of space cadets not getting quite enough O2 from their tanks though.
Man I'm 46 and in awesome health. I do run/walk 5-6 miles every day and smoke a few stogies every month. I love those babies. So does my family. They flavor the wood in my house.
"When is the last time you spoke to a smoker . . ."
I try to avoid smokers so it's been some time since I spoke to one. Anyone stupid enough to smoke, though, can't be "relatively mentally alert and sharp".
Obviously not smoking hasn't made you any smarter.
Do you also avoid women that have had sex with more than 10 people in their lifetime?
People with naturally bad body odor?
How about people with acne? Do they offend you also?
Have you considered avoiding people that are taller and shorter than you?
How about obese people? They could damage your furniture.
Have you been a complete pussy your entire life or is this a recent development?
Man it must SUCK to be you.
Thank you Feral Serf for avoiding us, please keep up the good work. By the way, maybe you can get all of your sanctimonious friends and family to stay away from us as well. Because if anything stinks worse than stale smoke it is self righteous pricks who think their shit don't stink.
Yep, if cigs repel people like that one its a reason to start smoking if you dont.
I think I will increase the amount I smoke, evidently its like a freaking citronella candle for assholes. At around $4 ish a pack for Marlboro Reds where I live its not as financially draining as in the more nannyish states.
Hmmmm,
Einstien, Freud, Jung, Churchill, FDR, Kipling, Twain, Oppinheimer, US Grant, Shelly, Wadsworth, Picaso, etc, etc............. all stupid.
Since when is coffee measured in units of mass?
High School Science, the term mass is correct. Althought mass is often referred to as weight.
GMadScientist you're pretty kool. A tenacious person. I like that.
Personally, I think he is a toolbox. But your welcome to your opinion. I red arrow the fool more than any other person on this site.
And with that, I'll provide my very own, first red arrow. ;-)
cbxer55 We all have our moments. I really enjoy all the " extroverted" ideas. I'm certainly not a perfect poster.
It's well documented that I have early morning rants about Jobs Numbers!
I am not a perfect poster either. Matter of fact, after two years and 45 weeks, I can honestly say I've read a whole lot more than I have posted. This thread just hit the nail on the head for me, that's all. Otherwise, I'd be reading and keeping the keyboard lips sealed. I prefer not to post on subjects that I know absolutely nothing about.
Prefer input over output.
Peace.
Fair enough. I respect your thoughts. Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Just got to add this, one of the definitions of an Extravert I encountered, was this "Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cellphone."
HAHA! I am the last one to pick up my cell phone, hate the dang thing. Texting? My phone is not text friendly. I am hard-of-hearing, and do not like to talk all that much. I guess, occasionally, the keyboard and some booze gets the best of me. But, it ain't often. Not likely there will be another thread on ZH that prompts this much attention from me.
Enjoy it while it lasts. ;-)
Smoked 4 cigars today...won't be ANY pretty soon~
I enjoy cigs, but hate being addicted to them.
Kind of like the US of A, credit and QE, except there is no will or desire to stop this.
I’m quitting smoking on the 21st.
BTW GMadScientest - I will be 60 in a year and a half, still run a couple miles, bike 7 miles, swim 750 meters too 6 days/wk. Persistance through endurance and strength, a form of addiction I aim to keep.
Anyway, I’m quitting smoking on the 21st.
I will try not to be a bitch in withdrawl. Maybe I will focus some energy on putting together a black market business plan for when the SHTF.
All the best!
in other news, black market cigarette sales explode
Good on ya fellas. Why in the hell is usd/jpy tanking into oblivion! I'm checking bond yields, and they are flat. aud/usd is flat. Major currency shift! "stealth'
You know why Ireland is not on that chart? Because the chart only goes up to $12 and smokes are now over $13 there. Of course 10 of that is tax, and every week I see another story about millions in cigarettes confiscated by customs and the police. Just last week they found $22 million worth of cigarettes in those enormous paper rolls used by newspapers, hollowed out in France and filled with cigarettes.
At the point where the price is more than doubled (for anything) because of taxes it is no longer about health, or taking advantage of an addictive substance in order to tax people, it is about spite and revenge and the nanny state manipulating your behaviors. Confiscatory taxation is the exact same thing as banning something altogether. Or, more accurate to say that exceedingly high taxes on anything are a prohibition for the poor, it is like making something illegal with an exception for rich people. And it was one of the main fulcrums that got rebellion started in the colonies, remember the TEA PARTY incident where tea was dumped into Boston Harbor because of tax on it?
I go out for a morning smoke on my deck each day while my coffee is brewing. The first coffee and the first smoke, life would not be worth living with them. And it abso-fucking-lutely does not matter what you or anybody else thinks about that. I am considerate of non smokers even when they are assholes that do not deserve consideration, but if you tell me how to live my life we are going to have a major problem sugar.
Tyler I have torn through every contact I have. The overnight swaps rates are dropping and the s/t flood gates are open.
I'm looking @ commodity currencies and they are roughly unchanged. I hedged aud/jpy earlier and am shitting a brick because aud/usd hasn't moved. It's all usd/jpy and Asian flows! WTF!
Massive ACB flows are moving into gold and (AAA) rated (sovereign) paper. M/E flows are recycling funds and rebalancing in S/A sovereigns for higher yields.
This sin tax seems counter-productive. The sooner people die, the faster they are off the payroll. Studies have shown that smoking is both hazardous to your health and that the overwhelming majority of habitual smokers are concentrated among the lower socio-economic class (i.e those most likely to be on the dole that are not multi-national corporations). As such, encouraging smoking seems to be the best path toward fiscal balance, and away from the oncoming 'fiscal cliff'.
tobacco's a hell of a drug...
Only if you alow it to be. tip e. canoe I never loved it enough! I don't drink coffee either. love the smell though.
"Smoke 'em if you got 'em."
the tax rate should be inverted. if the price is made up of 80% tax, the actual tax is 4 times the price of a packet, that is the tax is 400%
San Ysidro, CA UETA Duty Free Store 3 cartons (600 cigarettes), 100 mm, full flavor, filter, hard pack, made in USA, "Sheriff" brand....$25 bucks ! I did the math....that's 83.3 cents a pack ! White market, no taxes ! They escort you to the border ! Monedas 1929 Socialism is to lies....what buttery flavored Crisco is to soft margarine !
Tijuana's famous "Horseshit" cigarettes were actually "Alas" (wings) cigarettes with a joke label ! Alas were the cheapest cigarettes that came in the same shape, size and count (20) as the Camel regulars format ! The cheapest cigarettes were "Faros" (lighthouse) ovals that were thin, short, loosely packed ovals that came 15 to the pack ! "Delicados" were highly coveted ovals that came 18 to the pack and are still popular today ! Monedas 1929 "Don't look for any coupons on the package....as the high cost of our quality hoseshit prohibits their use ! 100% select horseshit....no mule shit ! Not a fart in a carload !"....Horseshit Management Team
classic
George Osborne presented with GCSE maths book
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9332816/Mansion-House-speech-George-Osborne-presented-with-GCSE-maths-book.html
People, if you are American then you shouldn't want the gov't controlling people by taxing one product over another. If someone wants to do something that doesn't hurt anyonew else, let them!
This used to be a country of Freedom now its the land of control by people who think they have a right to control someone else.
How about taxes on hookers? Just askin? Never know in thei econmy College checiks looking to make some money the old fashined way. Don't forget Single Moms in the mix.
I think in (several of?*) the LDCs on the chart, tobacco is still a state run industry. I think it's quite profitable - unlike many state owned enterprises - so comparison of unadjusted tax rates like this is pretty misleading.
*eg China:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/world/asia/11iht-letter.html
Liberal priorities: Smoking and eating meat are bad ! Outdoor work and rice in a Norko gulag is healthy for you ! Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad You'd Smoke Too If You Lived In China....North Korea Can't Afford Cigarettes Except For Party Officials....Calculate That Price !
Buy Tobacco Shares and short treasuries. One has a dividend which tracks inflation the other not. Re-invest the carry, wait for Gov default . YOu can do that in Japan too that is a safe way to play Japan Gov short because Japan Tobacco will stop repaying the debt it incurred for Galagher acquisition and dividend will always track inflation. Tobacco shares = inflation adjusted TIPS on steroids with no risk of default.
A few links on how cigarettes financed Napoleonic wars, Civil war, Spanish American war. http://gentlemaneconomics.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/war-financing-with-to...
How Tobacco trades was always monopolized and under the control of the government.
http://gentlemaneconomics.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/tobacco-government-ta...
How central government in 1900 collected a mere 2% of GDP, how median income is unchanged measured either in Gold or Cigarettes packs.
http://gentlemaneconomics.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/measuring-the-wages-i...