San Francisco axes baseball tradition by outlawing smokeless tobacco http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/09/health/san-francisco-tobacco-ban/index.html I came across this article this morning and it got me thinking just how far this country has gone in taking it's anti-smoking approach. Where I live it's almost $9 a pack and you can't have the radio on for five minutes without hearing about how smoking is going to kill you. You can't smoke anywhere indoors, regardless of what the owner would like to do. The taxes for smoking have become astronomical and while I certainly see the logic in taxing a demerit good, I do wonder why smoking has become 10x the target anything else has. I often hear the argument that, "well people shouldn't be doing it anyway" but that's a pretty shitty argument. There's a lot of things people buy that they shouldn't, somehow they haven't more than tripled in price over the last ten years. I also hear the justification that it's to offset to higher medical costs smokers incur, but is this actually true? Smokers on average live a few years less, but everyone gets sick and dies eventually. Are smokers actually that much more expensive? According to forbes it's a completely bullshit narrative, and smokers actually cost substantially less on average: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timwors...moking-do-not-cost-health-care-systems-money/ Focus: How far is far enough when it comes to penalizing smokers? Should governments regulate what business owners can allow in their establishments or should it be up to the owners? Are all these exorbitant taxes justified? Should we just make smoking illegal at this point? Why does smoking have more of a stigma than say being 100 pounds over weight does? Alt Focus: There are many different taxes that are levied for specific reasons, such as the gasoline tax for highways, and property taxes for schools systems. Are taxes on specific things to benefit particular problems good? Or should we just have a single general tax? Or something different? Alt Focus: If you could tax any behavior, what would it be and why? Can be amusing, serious, or both. VI Edit: Added Alt Focii
Focus: I think the smoking stuff has gone way too far in zealousness in attacking smokers. They're the one group of people you're allowed to basically publicly attack now, but people who have other potentially harmful habits get a pass. If you're a druggie or an alchie you have a disease/problem you can't control. You're a smoker? Horrible person. And, I'm a non smoker. As for regulating businesses I think it's dumb. Especially since it's done in such a haphazard way and tried to be veiled as "protecting the employees". So that means a regular bar can't allow smoking, but fill out a form and you're a hookah bar and can have 50 people puffing away on those, fill out another form saying that 10% of your sales will be coming from selling cigars? Great! Now you can sell cigars and let people smoke in your bar. So you're saying smoke is so bad second hand for the employees it must be banned from anyplace serving booze, but then establish places that you can specifically smoke in and encourage smoking in, why aren't those employees getting protection? If it was up to me, I would say each individual place should make their own rules if you want your bar to be non-smoking you can put a sign in front that it's a non smoking establishment and people who specifically want to smoke and drink can avoid it and people that want to avoid smoke can go to it and if you want to allow smoking at your bar, the same deal.
So you give up your tax breaks for blow jobs? There are so many questions here, how much of a tax break equals a blow job given by shakira vs Honey BooBoo's mom? Or do you believe every tax break given up is rewarded by a blow job given by an agreeably attractive woman no matter how much or how little is forgone?
You are overcomplicating everything. Each blowjob would accrue a larger deductible amount for women. It's a quantity thing over quality thing. We're are trying to get girls to give more out men in general will net the benefit.
Focus: At least banning smoking with the justification of employee health & safety is a logical thought process. Banning chew is another; I don't really see the public safety issue here. That really strikes me as nanny-state thinking. In a bigger picture sense though, smokers become stigmatized once the popularity of smoking dropped to the level at which cultural norms allowed people to marginalize smokers without cultural backlash. Bashing smokers is the 'in' thing to do right now, so people do it. Alt Focus: Of course taxes on specific purchases/income are good. Take the gas tax: the gas tax goes toward maintaining the roads, so it's logical that the people who use the roads the most shoulder more of the burden of paying for them. However general taxes are important too - funding schools via property taxes (common in many municipalities) is a big reason why there's such a disparity in public school quality. Alt-alt Focus: I'd jack up estate taxes to 90% after a certain threshold - dynastic wealth is bad for society.
Von Miller got fined by the Broncos for farting in team meetings. Apparently he leads the team in fines, which is awesome because it means that there are other players in the running. I'm (un?)fortunate to work in the same place as my wife, so whenever she is in the office, or any largely-enclosed space with no witnesses (/other co-workers who think it's hilarious), I make it a point to fart in her direction. If we had a fart tax, I'd basically be working to pay off the fines from my ass gas.
I grew up with two smokers. My dad finally quit a few years ago when it became clear his life would be much shorter if he didn't. My mom still does it - she's tried lots of things to quit and has had no success. I hope she conquers it some day, mostly for her benefit but also partly for mine whenever we visit each other. It is the nastiest shit ever, I can't breathe around her when she's smoking, my clothes and hair reek of smoke afterward. Growing up was awful, driving anywhere long distance my choices were poisonous air or high MPH winds from having the window open. I didn't even realize about the clothes smell until I went to college and detoxed. When they finally banned smoking in restaurants in Virginia was one of the happiest days of my life. Nowadays, except when visiting with my mom, I only occasionally have to endure second hand smoke if I pass someone smoking in the street. I promise I don't give them a death glare, but my internal dialogue is quite colorful. I understand addictions, and really have no judgment for people who choose to smoke or are unsuccessful at giving it up. But understand that if you do smoke and I am around you, it is only because I absolutely have to be. If I had the choice of being in your company or hang out with someone who has oozing sores all over their face, well at least I can look away from someone's face and not get their ooze on my clothing. There is an ad on TV I've seen where the millenials (?) are challenged to be the first generation to not smoke at all. I'm sure that is not feasible, but I like the idea. Most of the time people start because it is the cool thing to do (I guess), so if it becomes considered uncool, then maybe it will dwindle away over time. Having said that, it would be a hit to Virginia's economy given how many tobacco farmers we have and the behemoth of Phillip Morris that is a huge influence here.
I frequent a divebar near my house. It smells like a forest fire happened in a urinal. Everyone absolutely reeks when they leave. The smell of smoke is so thick you can whiff it on each other a dozen feet away. If I don't change my clothes before bed my sheets smell like I was fucking Frank Sinatra all night. The place is also one of the most charmingly decrepit rum hound dens left of old Florida. To lose any one aspect of it would be to lose something integral to the community that despises it. Including the smoke. You want to live in a free and weird society, you have to give up certain safe, comforts. Don't like smoke? Don't go in there. That being said, smoke slays me. Makes my eyes and throat swell, fucks with my sleep. I have felt more hungover the next morning from people smoking around me than from alcohol. My dad died from smoking, but his brother smoked over 60 years before dying at 86. My point is, don't blow it in my face. When you go to the bathroom I will open your pack and blast hot farts into it. Alt. Focus: Taxes are good. The manner in which they are divvied up is what concerns me. The war on science and education in this country is fucking ludicrous. One of the tactics prescribed is economic warfare on schools, particularly poor ones. We also need to start funding more abortions and proper sex ed programs. A single, or flat, tax is shit because it typically affects poor and middle class families adversely. Sin taxes are wonderful. This is how society functions; you pay to live in an ordered, open society. So stop trying to fuck with it. Alt. Alt. Focus: I'd up the income tax on people making over a million a year. Incrementally going up every 5 million earned. Coal and oil subsidies also need to be removed for any corporation making over X dollar amount. I'd like to see people making under 25k taxed even less, effectively down to SS withholdings only. Really, I'd just like to see common sense taxation come back. Rich people don't need extra help getting richer, especially if they aren't going to hire any more people with that extra dough. Might as well fix some roads with the extra tax dollars. Also, a Donald Trump tax. Every time he opens his fetid piehole he is either taxed by the syllable or facefucked by Lexington Steele. Pretty sure this is covered in one of dem dar amendments.