Russians will never truly be free until the government bans smoking.

SMOKE!



I will break you!

In former Soviet Russia, cigarettes smoke you.

So to beat the Russians all we'd have to do is cut off the supply lines for their vodak and smoeks, and they'll eat themselves alive? Excellent.

Just another political hack.

You know who else wanted to ban smoking? Godwined.

Are you Smoking yet?

skinink: Just to get it in befroe the anti-smoking crowd gets here: the problem isn't the smokers, it's the government. All they have to do is outright ban smoking nationwide and there's no problem. So until they ban an otherwise legal and taxed activity, don't get so pissy toward smokers.
Besides, it's the taxes the smokers pay per pack oil and natural gas revenues that keeps everyone else's taxes lower than they are.

FTFY, Tovarisch.

Not Now Jestergirl!

skinink - Once the tobacco tax money is gone, who do you think will be taxed to replace it?-
I think the cost savings in health care will take care of that...

Mr. Medvedev said. "That's the highest rate in the world. I would not even mention alcohol"

Now I now why Putin picked him as PM, the guy does not overlook the obvious.

Que Le Fark? lighted? ... ack.

skinink: Just to get it in befroe the anti-smoking crowd gets here: the problem isn't the smokers, it's the government. All they have to do is outright ban smoking nationwide and there's no problem. So until they ban an otherwise legal and taxed activity, don't get so pissy toward smokers.
Besides, it's the taxes the smokers pay per pack that keeps everyone else's taxes lower than they are. Once the tobacco tax money is gone, who do you think will be taxed to replace it?

FTA: A pack of cigarettes here can cost as little as 25 cents because, unlike in the United States and many Western European countries, in Russia, tobacco is hardly taxed.

Damn, JesterGirl and Rames beat me to it

You'd smoke and drink like a loon too if you had to live in a shiathole like Russia...

Rhames: Not Now Jestergirl!

Aw, you beat me to it!

skinink: Just to get it in befroe the anti-smoking crowd gets here: the problem isn't the smokers, it's the government. All they have to do is outright ban smoking nationwide and there's no problem. So until they ban an otherwise legal and taxed activity, don't get so pissy toward smokers.
Besides, it's the taxes the smokers pay per pack that keeps everyone else's taxes lower than they are. Once the tobacco tax money is gone, who do you think will be taxed to replace it?

No shiat! Thank god we don't have to deal with all those crankheads, crackheads, and heroin addicts anymore. It was crazy how they all just disappeared when the government banned those substances.

Cigarettes: Natures cure for underfunded retirement plans.

I would not even mention alcohol


FAIL

Thakras, I was thinking more of a troll

Pack of decent cigarettes in Russia = 25 rubles
25 rubles is about $1
And there are packs for 7 rubles...
No wonder everyone there smokes. It's frequently cheaper to smoke than eat.

ms_gingerwhite: Pack of decent cigarettes in Russia = 25 rubles
25 rubles is about $1
And there are packs for 7 rubles...
No wonder everyone there smokes. It's frequently cheaper to smoke than eat.

Cigarettes and coffee--the diet of champions.

And in the evening, you can just go crazy with nutritious vodak.

Despite being a liberal sissy who loves puppy dogs and long walks on the beach, I have to say I agree with the libertariantards in the fact that when it comes to mind-altering substances, particularly addictive ones, bans do very little to keep people from using them, at least the people who really want to use them.

Also, tobacco is an EXTREMELY flexible good as has been proven in the United States, it took taxing the unholy god out of tobacco (compared to its inflation adjust cost before taxation) along with decades of anti-smoking ads which essentially all said "OMG TOBACCO KILLS 50 BABIES EVERY SECOND" to get our smoking rate to drop.

If they doubled the cost of a pack of smokes in Russia via increasing tariffs on imported tobacco and imposing tax penalties on domestically produced tobacco (the capital for which is mostly foreign), all the sudden Russia is taking in TONS of foreign cash it can reinvest into infrastructure (which Russia has been remarkably good at lately) and help make its country a desirable place to live.

Domestic booze in Russia (I believe, correct me if I'm wrong), Vodka particularly, is subsidized by the government to make it affordable to the people. Taxing this is unlikely to help anyone, and while alcohol is a flexible good to ALCOHOLICS (and even though Russia has the world's highest rate of alcoholism), it is much more inflexible to non-addicted consumers. Taxing this industry would more than likely hurt the Russian economy.

This all comes down to the reason WHY people use addictive mind-altering substances to the point of shortening their lifespans: they're unhappy. While smoking is obviously a social thing (particularly in Europe, which still has notoriously high smoking rates), smoking 2-3 packs a day is not "social". That's substance addiction to deal with the stresses of life. Much like [most] alcoholism.

If Russia reinvests these sin-taxes and tariffs back into its infrastructure and public programs (schools, hospitals, housing subsidies, increased police force, recreation, public beautification, etc), I bet they'd see a marked drop in the number of substance addicts on the extreme ends of both alcohol and tobacco (ie, extreme abusers), and markedly increase the average life span, reproductive rate, and happiness of the average Russian citizen.

This, of course, over the long term will cause the tobacco industry to slowly suffer lower and lower sales (though they will probably never reach the point of being unprofitable in a culture where this activity is the social norm), and the revenue from the taxation/tariffs to decrease over time, but the initial booms Russia would receive from this money would far outweigh the short-term dissidence of pack-a-day smokers and the quiet cries of tobacco companies.

Ok, once and for all:
When is it "lighted" and when is it "lit"?

RetiredTroll: Problem solved!

fark YEAH!

And next we can tackle fatty foods.

Rauchst, stirbst.
Rauchst nicht, stirbst auch.

"I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die. So let me live my life the way I want too." Jimi Hendrix.

Some people understand this some people don't. It's the ones who don't who are such a pain the arse.

if the tobacco taxes were actually applied to health care, i'd have no problem with massive tobacco taxes.

since they go into the general fund to ease the tax burden of the majority at the expense of the minority, i have to call them unfair and tyrannical.

/non-smoker

RetiredTroll: sparkeyjames: "I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die. So let me live my life the way I want too." Jimi Hendrix.

Some people understand this some people don't. It's the ones who don't who are such a pain the arse.

I don't think quoting someone who died choking on his own vomit helps your case.

Actually that gives it a higher level of credibility to me than it would if he was still alive and kicking today.

RetiredTroll: sparkeyjames: "I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die. So let me live my life the way I want too." Jimi Hendrix.

Some people understand this some people don't. It's the ones who don't who are such a pain the arse.

I don't think quoting someone who died choking on his own vomit helps your case.


Except Abraham Lincoln. We can still use him, right?

sparkeyjames: "I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die. So let me live my life the way I want too." Jimi Hendrix.

Some people understand this some people don't. It's the ones who don't who are such a pain the arse.

You are either young or dumb, or possibly both.

When you get older, you will get a sickness that will hurt and make you miserable. You will also have things to live for. The doctor will offer to treat your sickness with a series of procedures that cost half a million dollars.
If you can quote Jimi Hendrix when that happens, you're still probably dumb, but at least you have the courage of your convictions.

RetiredTroll: sparkeyjames: "I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die. So let me live my life the way I want too." Jimi Hendrix.

Some people understand this some people don't. It's the ones who don't who are such a pain the arse.

I don't think quoting someone who died choking on his own vomit helps your case.

So clearly you're one of the ones who don't.

RetiredTroll: There is only one catch though - you cannot use any government funded health programs whatsoever, and are fully responsible for your own insurance.

Here's a better idea. How about we just get rid of all government funded health programs completely? My health is not the state's business.

Those lung pictures are total BS and mislabelled.

One is of a healthy lung and the other is of a cancerous lung, not a smokers lung, unless I missed the meeting that declared anyone who smokes actually has lung cancer.

Smoking is bad for you. Smoking does not make you bad. In denial perhaps, but I know a lot of nice smokers....hate it when they die on me after being friends...hate to have to say I told you so...but I do get tired of the nanny state hatred of smokers...

"Russia is the world's smelliest country and Russians are the world's smelliest people [and yet, on the Trans-Siberian railroad, you can smoke only on the platforms between cars]. Neither dry cleaning nor soap have caught on there yet, let alone pollution control. I'd spent nearly a month being gagged by coal smoke, diesel fumes, industrial effluvia and BO. Then I stepped out into the train car vestibule, lit a Montecristo No. 3 and all the Russians ran away holding their noses."

- P.J. O'Rourke

Exercise your right to smoke! (new window)

RetiredTroll: I think that we should subsidize cigarettes. Here's the deal smokers - buy one pack, get two packs of unfiltered cigarettes free. There is only one catch though - you cannot use any government funded health programs whatsoever, and are fully responsible for your own insurance.
In less than 20 years, most smokers would die.
In a few decades, the people with a propensity for nicotine addiction would no longer be in the gene pool.
Problem solved!

I'd vote for a candidate that agreed to do your idea.

Koichi: skinink: Just to get it in befroe the anti-smoking crowd gets here: the problem isn't the smokers, it's the government. All they have to do is outright ban smoking nationwide and there's no problem. So until they ban an otherwise legal and taxed activity, don't get so pissy toward smokers.
Besides, it's the taxes the smokers pay per pack that keeps everyone else's taxes lower than they are. Once the tobacco tax money is gone, who do you think will be taxed to replace it?

FTA: A pack of cigarettes here can cost as little as 25 cents because, unlike in the United States and many Western European countries, in Russia, tobacco is hardly taxed.

Yes, I remember seeing cigarettes for 11 rubles a pack (~$0.40 at the time). Unlike here, where smokers suck that cancer stick down to the filter and then some, it wasn't uncommon for me to see people light up when their bus was just down the road, take a single drag, and toss it on the ground with 90% of it unused.

/Я люблю Родину

I am so shocked...SHOCKED to find all of the universal health care nuts advocates are watching TV right now.

Single White Male: RetiredTroll: There is only one catch though - you cannot use any government funded health programs whatsoever, and are fully responsible for your own insurance.

Here's a better idea. How about we just get rid of all government funded health programs completely? My health is not the state's business.

No, but your continuing business is the State's health.

Regnad Kcin: sparkeyjames: "I'm the one who has to die when it's time for me to die. So let me live my life the way I want too." Jimi Hendrix.

Some people understand this some people don't. It's the ones who don't who are such a pain the arse.

You are either young or dumb, or possibly both.

When you get older, you will get a sickness that will hurt and make you miserable. You will also have things to live for. The doctor will offer to treat your sickness with a series of procedures that cost half a million dollars.
If you can quote Jimi Hendrix when that happens, you're still probably dumb, but at least you have the courage of your convictions.


To paraphrase Washington, nothing is so harmfull to the liberty of the individual as an all-powerfull government.

Make em pay higher premiums. It's easy to test for, I imagine, and the US already has policies forbidding smoking in most public areas.

ImJustaTroll: Make em pay higher premiums. It's easy to test for, I imagine, and the US already has policies forbidding smoking in most public areas.


And unfortunately, the bans are coming to private areas as well. Here in The People's Republic of Washington, you can't smoke in bars, smoke shops, and PRIVATE CLUBS.....I shiat you not.

/Indian reservations are the only exception.

This explains why Russian women have such low voices.

RetiredTroll: I think that we should subsidize cigarettes. Here's the deal smokers - buy one pack, get two packs of unfiltered cigarettes free. There is only one catch though - you cannot use any government funded health programs whatsoever, and are fully responsible for your own insurance.
In less than 20 years, most smokers would die.
In a few decades, the people with a propensity for nicotine addiction would no longer be in the gene pool.
Problem solved!



I like the cut of your jib.

I'm sick of subsidizing smoker's health care costs by having to pay higher premiums, and I think every other non-smoker is too.

They should just triple the taxes on tobacco products. It would create public funding, and also reduce the number of smokers.

Win-win.