Reason For California's War On Vaping
I was commenting on a letter to the editor of the Willit's News earlier today- yet another anti- smoking zealot telling us how bad e- cigarettes are. I pointed out the vast majority of what I've heard was of smokers cutting back or quitting altogether through the use of e- cigarettes. The only reason I could come up with for their attack on e- cigarettes was money.
I was surprised to have someone else reply to my comment and point me to this 3 1/2 minute You Tube video that shows why California is going after e- cigarettes. In short, it's money, although a bit more of a convoluted explanation than I had assumed.
Summary: California wanted the tobacco settlement money up front so they sold bonds to get it. Payments for the bonds would come from cigarette sales. If sales declined, as they have, the state doesn't get as much money from sales and thus has trouble paying off the bonds.
Cigarette sales have gone down while e- cigarette sales have gone up, so it's in the state's interest to either get people back on regular cigarettes, or demonize e- cigs enough so a e- cigs could be taxed like cigarettes. Makes complete sense as far as motivation goes.
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Whenever I hear of this sort of thing or people or the State attempting to tax tobacco or e- cigarettes, it reminds me of that scene at the end of that Ringo Starr movie Help! He's throwing money into some sort of a ship's cesspool full of poop, or whatever it was, and everybody is jumping after the money. Seems to me the same sort of thing.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 2:20 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
If you want to see taxes gone crazy, look at Alabama. They tax VHS and DVD rentals. Now that those are in decline, they're looking at a streaming tax for every TV show and movie streamed.
Imagine what that tax would look like 10 years from now when cable channels are all streamed.
You know? It's not the overspending and industry balloons popping that's killing everything, is things like this- speculation and betting the farm on things that haven't yet (or may not happen). And games-of-chance are illegal for us regular folks why?
Just a minor correction Fred: The movie you are thinking of is "The Magic Christian," with Peter Sellers (Ringo of course), and Christopher Lee as "The Ship's Vampire." Ah, and Raquel Welch as the Princess of the Whip.
As a Vaper this all annoys the Hell out of me. Between anti-smoking zealots and the above mentioned financial issues I wish these people would just pick themselves something else for their lives to be all about.
I'm not hurting anyone and so far as I can tell, I'm not hurting myself either (certainly less than with my cigars and hookah).
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-tobacco-legislature-20150415-story.html#page=1
Fred, The link is to an LA times article showing the state government trying to raise the tobacco tax from 0.87 to 2.87.
I wonder hom much lower my insurance premium would be if everyone quit smoking
We don't encourage people to inject legal medication such as insulin in public places, so I don't see the harm of asking people to not vape in public places. Go to some out of the way place to get your nicotine please.
Mola wrote, "...I wish these people would just pick themselves something else for their lives to be all about."
And they will. That's why they're turning their gunsights on vaping. When that recedes, they'll attack something else- soft drinks already starting to be a target. Then red meat and so on.
I'm obviously annoyed with it, too. The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat reported the other day on one of the cities down there trying to set a minimum price on tobacco (they've talked about vaping, too). The idea being to raise the price so the city could skim the extra money for itself.
I had to ask in the comments why so many people put so much effort into attacking something that is so much on the decline. I came to the conclusion it was because they can.
Smokers (and vapers now) are the smallest minority in the country, and a rapidly shrinking one. People also like to have a boogeyman- someone you love to hate. That makes smokers the perfect target as they're too small a group to defend themselves.
People can go after smokers- and vapers by extension- and suffer no consequences,feeling all smug and self righteous while doing so. I've seen enough examples of that in person to believe that's a big part of it.
Add the financial incentives by the state as pointed out in that video, and it becomes a very ugly situation indeed.
I'm all in favor of taxing the sources that lead to health problems that we all end up paying for in our insurance premiums. Lets tax the shit out of cigs, pot, soda, fast food, etc.
Why California hates vaping video part 2 http://youtu.be/YmPL0ldKoz4
I'm all for repealing the insurance & pharmaceutical mafias in exchange for a flat tax that gives power back to the consumers so they can afford to make healthier choices. Taxing them to death, is a literal phrase.
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