Re: Susan Reimers (@Meezer_Mom) replied to one of your Tweets! (fwd)

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

 > From: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
 > Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 12:39:16 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 > she says it's a regressive tax on poor people and doesn't guarantee where 
 > research money will be spent any way.

By that argument, you could say that taxing gambling casinos is regressive
because the people who are at the biggest risk of losing everything are
poor people.

I guess the bigger question is: does it make sense for the government to
punish vice?  Maybe, maybe not -- I could definitely see both points of
view.

The good thing, from my personal perspective, about a higher tobacco tax
is that fewer people smoke overall when there is a higher price and
therefore there's a smaller probability of being assaulted by tobacco
smoke ;-).

 > On Wed, 23 May 2012, robert wrote:
 > >  > From: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
 > >  > Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 10:12:45 -0700 (PDT)
 > >  >
 > >  > tobacco tax
 > > 
 > > Well, frankly, it probably doesn't matter much since smokers cannot get
 > > health insurance anyway.
 > > 
 > > But, perhaps it will deter some people from smoking.  Maybe.