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General News Would you pay AUD$40 for a pack of cigarettes?

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by PatrickUK, Jan 31, 2017.

  1. PatrickUK

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    How Australia is stubbing out smoking - BBC News

    I applaud the Australian policy to prohibitively increase the cost of cigarettes. I've seen too many people decline and die through smoking related illnesses. It's terrible to see. I also think the packaging, with gruesome images and stark warnings is the way to go.

    Would you stop smoking if cigarettes were priced at AUD$40 per pack?
     
  2. sonic1337111

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    If i smoked (I don't and i never intend to) it really depends what the current exchange rate is for AUD$40 to GBP.
     
  3. PatrickUK

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    Around GBP £24
     
  4. anthracite

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    I'd be very happy not to live in Australia ^^
     
  5. HM03

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    I've seen first hand what smoking does, so I'm staying smokefree, regardless.
     
  6. backdrop

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    I wouldnt smoke a cigarette if I tried as they are disqusting habits . I wish there was more support in vaping tho . Safe and can save millions of lives from tobacco if used correctly.
     
  7. Andrew99

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    I don't smoke but I would not pay $40 for a pack of ciggarettes. I think we should do that here as well to help people get off smoking.
     
  8. Assassin'sKat

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    I wouldn't even pay a dime for a box of cancer.

    However, I have seen the effect addiction costs on people...forty dollars is too much. They will end up not being able to buy food or pay rent. It's dangerously high. I think ten or fifteen dollars is more reasonable. Maybe even twenty. Forty is too much. I know some people smoke like two packs a day(jeez but it happens).
     
  9. Aussie792

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    Smoking is expensive for the public purse, as well. Public funding has to meet the costs of medical care and productivity losses from preventable illness and early death or debilitation.

    That goes to the tune of billions and everyone else loses out, both in taxes paid, hospital beds taken and the labour inefficiencies related illnesses impose on the economy.

    ---------- Post added 2nd Feb 2017 at 02:22 PM ----------

    Currently, a pack of 25 costs around AU$21. $10 or $15 is an unreasonably affordable price. It's cheaper than most meals, far cheaper than alcohol and barely makes a dent in the average wage if you smoke less than a pack a day.

    The overall cost to individuals increases on aggregate if cigarettes are cheaper. If you can't break into smoking because of cost in the most likely period (15-25), then you are less likely to be a long-term or serious smoker at any point in your life, which increases the incidence of illness, early death and the associated public costs. Even if the harm were fairly disastrous for a small number of addicts, the Government has those aggregate harms in mind, both in terms of individual cost and public cost. It also has a fairly reasonable desire not to let young people continue a destructive habit in coming generations.

    It is hard on addicts. That's unfortunate but unavoidable if you want to wipe out smoking. But just because a very small number of consumers have an inelastic demand causing them to just cop the high prices, that doesn't mean the overall harm isn't worth preventing by lifting the tobacco excise to discourage smoking among those who have elastic demand and won't cop the higher costs.

    I also think it's inaccurate to depict even the average addict as being so addicted that they couldn't cut down, even if they can't quit. A two pack per day smoker is more likely to reduce to one pack over a period of three years than they are to go homeless or starve.

    It's a gradual increase of the tobacco excise. It's not such a sudden jump that there's no transition period, which allows personal budgets to reconcile better with addictive habits than under a sudden change.
     
  10. KyleD

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    Hmmm, I´ve never smoked before so I can´t say. I´ve always wondered what is so appealing about smoking.
     
  11. BrookeVL

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    No I wouldn't. But then I quit when my brand went above $7 so I guess I'm a minority who wasn't really addicted very much.
     
  12. Makalaster

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    I've been addicted to cigarettes since I was 13; 21 now. I would hate to have to pay over $10 for a pack like I did one time in New York. I would piss poor if it was $30 USD since I smoke a pack a day. I am trying to stop smoking and vape more #vapenaysh

    When the government raises taxes on any product it just produces a black market and makes the poor poorer.

    If it does become above $10 here I would just try to quit.
     
    #12 Makalaster, Mar 12, 2017
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 12, 2017
  13. sonic1337111

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    Well then no (also sorry for replying after this long i just forgot about it)
     
  14. Browncoat

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    I don't smoke, but if I were addicted, yeah, I probably would pay that much for a box.

    Per cigarette would be more effective.
     
  15. Cinis

    Cinis Guest

    I actually find this quite amusing as they did make cigarettes more expensive here once to prevent people from smoking but lowered the price again when people actually stopped smoking because of the tax income. (or so I heard in school)
     
  16. Austin

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    I don't smoke so I wouldn't pay anything for cigarettes. Still, I really hate this. Why don't we also tax alcohol into oblivion as well? Oh, because a majority still enjoys drinking alcohol and an effective "prohibition" won't work? How ahoy fast food and sugar? I hate to use that argument but really the only reason cigarettes are being attacked successfully is because the majority no longer smokes and doesn't really care about slowly burning a hole in smokers' pockets until they are so broke they are forced to quit.
     
  17. Aussie792

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    Smokers are disproportionately poorer and face the social and economic costs of medical problems.

    The government's consideration is whether that financial burden is harder on you than the long-term, multi-faceted (including financial) burden of continued smoking. The efficacy of the tax increase to prevent the latter is crucial. You admit you would take your attempts to quit more seriously with the financial burden increased.

    In terms of a black market, that does often happen. But Australia is fortunate to have had no domestic tobacco production since the 1990s and the borders are relatively easy to secure compared to nations with land borders. The costs of illegally shipping enough tobacco to Australia, bypassing a rigorous customs and border protection regime, makes a black market that undercuts the official value of cigarettes relatively unfeasible.

    ---------- Post added 14th Mar 2017 at 10:49 AM ----------

    There are a few things to note here.

    1) Alcohol can be consumed safely, whereas cigarettes invariably have a negative impact and higher levels of addictiveness.

    2) Alcohol is easier to dangerously bootleg in Australia, which could undercut any health benefits of a 'tax to death' approach.

    3) Australia's tax regime does make alcohol expensive compared to similar nations. Luxury tax, an alcohol tax and the GST (same as a VAT) without exception cover alcohol and increase its cost so that binge drinking is minimised. Cultural factors make that a difficult, but not unsuccessful approach.

    4) Given the first two factors, Australia's approach has been to shape consumption behaviours by making some alcohol more expensive than others through regulatory means. This is often unsuccessful (the Howard government increased the cost of "cruisers" through tax because of high rates of teen binge drinking and their sweetness reducing perception of alcohol content, but consequently made straight spirits cheaper per litre in comparison).

    Fast food and sugar have fewer tax exemptions than fresh foods as it stands. I would support a harsher tax regime designed to discourage excessive consumption of sugar but that would be politically difficult in the Australian context. Sugar regions sit in some of the most marginal seats in the federal parliament and consequently impact both governing parties' capacity to use the same approach with sugar. Approaches have to be more subtle and straightforward penalisation is likely to fail.

    That said, I still don't believe tobacco being unevenly targeted means it shouldn't be targeted at all.
     
  18. Argentwing

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    I wouldn't smoke unless someone paid me considerably more than $40 a pack. Australian or USD. Horrible slow-acting poison.
     
  19. L0ser

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    Never smoked cigarettes and never plan on doing so. Watching classmates at a party go through packs and packs really turned me off from the idea. Hasn't stopped me from trying other stupid stuff, though.

    Anyways, I wouldn't pay that, or any, amount for cigarettes. But I think that it would be far too expensive to do what is suggested in the title, and would essentially only be punishing smokers for their bad habit. I would suggest higher prices, but it gets to a point where we're just hurting the people who are already addicted and sinking money into cigarettes anyway.
     
  20. jaska

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    I know absolutely no smokers who do not want to quit. Both my parents struggled for years to overcoming their habits and my uncle has only just recently quit after smoking most of his life. I would never start unless i wished to die faster, because that is what would happen if i did. I also get hooked on stuff easily, so that would make it it even harder for me to quit.
    Increasing the price is a good way to help stop smoking, as well as having the photos of tar lungs etc on packaging. There's a thing going on here in nz where the government are trying to make nz smoke free by 2050, which seems a bit unlikely to me, but it would be great if the plan works. they've started by banning smoking in a lot of public places and the general attitude towards smokers seems to be changing. Smoking isn't really a cool thing for youth to do anymore here, instead its weed.
    Yet i agree with Austin that it is just burning a bigger and bigger whole in smokers pockets until they are so broke they have to quit or else they'll end up on the street. Homelessness is already a massive problem here so making it harder for smokers will have a big affect on the poorer people
     
    #20 jaska, Mar 13, 2017
    Last edited: Mar 13, 2017