Cigarette tax on tobacco and its effects on local economies and health care costs.

Local and federal governments attempt to increase sources of income in a bad economic atmosphere around the world. A fashionable and frequent plan of action is to increase the tax on tobacco products.

The tax on tobacco harms the lower class and working class people more because they proportionately are more inclined to be smokers.

Raising the cigarette tax does not cut down on health care expenditures. The majority of people using tobacco products are addicted to smoking no matter what they costs. The promotion and use of quit smoking products would do more to deter the use of tobacco products.

Increasing the cigarette tax increases the crime rate for black markets for distributing the products. It encourages crossing borders to leave the government jurisdiction imposing the tax to shop for tobacco plus other products. This not only cuts the tax dollars collected but reduces sales to consumers inside and outside the district.

Reducing smokers does not cut back on health care costs to the government. Smokers typically endure aggressive cancers before they get to retirement age. In comparison, non-smokers live into their eighties consuming social security benefits and health care costs. Read the rest of this entry »