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by Setrepeoh
on Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:16 am |
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All the tobacco companies closed their factories and moved to Mexico, leaving the work force behind? Would they cause a stir? What if they put a sign up at the gate when workers came that told them they no longer had jobs because their political leaders had forced them to leave, and named every one of the cowards that voted for anti-smoking, and ludicrous taxation without representation? Would it create a ground swell that would envelope Washington D.C. ? Where would the tobacco growers sell their produce? Would our government subsidize their crops? And if so, for how long? Tobacco companies have paid the Court decisions with increases in their costs to us smokers over the years, and now that a number of the lawsuit settlements have been paid out, the government has to find revenues in taxing the consumer, even though it was already done to pay the settlements. Their greedy little minds work such wonders in finding new ways to persecute smokers, like, passing a national tax increasing the cost of cigarettes to an ungodly amount. Let's face it, folks. These taxes are not to stop us from smoking. They are to line the politicians' pockets, now that settlements are being paid off one by one. Where did all that money go? The attorneys got a bunch of it, and the plaintiffs got the rest. But, if the plaintiffs were the individual states, then where is it now?
This great country of ours fought oppression,( supposedly), in every war: the Revolution, The war of 1812, the Mexican-American War, ( oh, yeah. We got California in that one), the Civil War, The Spanish-American War,( Puerto Rico and the Phillipines),
The Great War,( WWI), The Second World War, Korea, Viet Nam, Granada, Kuwait, and Iraq, ( but, it wasn't for the oil.....oh noooooo!). Every one of these wars had economic reasons; not freedom at it's base. Since the end of the cold war this country has demeaned itself; scaring it's population into giving up personal freedoms, like private telephone calls, checking out certain books in a public library, and having the right to light a cigarette.
Just for a minute, imagine if this country's politicians won on every front with their anti- smoking campaign. What would be their next target? Once they won over our inaliable right to freedom of choice, what would be next? The right to keep and bear arms? Then what? Alcaholic beverages? Where would it end? Our freedom of the press has already gone south.
Slowly, but surely, our United States of America is becoming The Union of Soviet Socialist Republic of America. ... The USSR of A... Once we beat them, we became them. Just my humble opinion... |
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Setrepeoh
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by Smoker Sympathizer
on Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:11 am |
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Very true about personal freedom and very sad to watch its erosion. Sometimes, I almost feel like Captain Von Trapp singing Eidelweiss in "The Sound of Music", when he's tearing up at the thought that the country he loved was gone.
Also, it seems to me that the tobacco companies are more concerned with appeasing the anti's than defending the rights of smokers. Of course, I'm an non-smoker, so I have no idea if this is true, or I'm just talking out of a certain body cavity  . It's just an observation. |
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Smoker Sympathizer
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by runamok
on Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:01 am |
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Smoker Sympathizer wrote: ...it seems to me that the tobacco companies are more concerned with appeasing the anti's than defending the rights of smokers.
Big Tobacco made a deal with the devil back in the 90's and the Master Settlement Agreement is the result. An unspoken part of that pact is that BT submit to being the whipping boy for anti-smoking. They won't say shit even if they have a mouthful.
The MSA is nothing more than the states selling "protection" to BT (on the backs of their customers) and just like any Mafioso protection racket, once you are in, there is no getting out alive.
Perhaps Big Tobacco rolled over too easily trying to save its own skin by agreeing to the terms of the MSA but that’s for another discussion. The MSA is here and it’s not going away. Now, with FDA regulation, BT has been, for all practical purposes, nationalized. The Federal Gov't has now assumed control of product formula, new product design, and marketing.
On the bright side, it should be extremely entertaining to observe the balancing act that now has to be performed by the FDA. Since they now control most of BT's activities, anti-smoking will have to ultimately direct their ire at the FDA. Sure, the tobacco companies will still play the role of whipping boy but they can't make a move without FDA approval.
Between the MSA and federal and state excise taxes, there are hundreds of billions of dollars (over a trillion actually if figured over, say, the next twenty years) at stake for the states and the feds. This is a cash cow of gargantuan proportions.
So, how does the FDA appear to get tough on smoking while preventing the cash cow from going to slaughter? Any serious moves by them to make cigarettes more expensive will backfire because cigarette taxes are already very close to the tipping point at which higher prices will result in a lot of quitters (bad for cash flow) and will kick the black market door that is already ajar, wide open (also bad for cash flow). Any changes in the ingredients that reduces nicotine content and/or make cigarettes less palatable will have the same result: Quitters and the black market.
The states have gone to bat for BT many times since the MSA was implemented (gets very little press coverage) to protect their payments and the Feds now have S-CHIP to pay for.
It will be very interesting to see how this unfolds. |
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runamok
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Joined: Dec 20, 2004
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by gilster
on Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:08 pm |
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The FDA went to bat big time for Big Tobacco this week by putting a ban on e-cigarettes.
Got to protect those profits and corresponding taxes.
They go hand-in-hand. |
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gilster
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Joined: Apr 19, 2006
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by Smoker Sympathizer
on Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:43 am |
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| Thank you for the information. The history you laid out is very interesting. Of course I'd never really paid attention to it before because it never directly impacted me. The first thing I remember about mainstream anti-smoking (besides the obligatory bashing I learned in school) was John Grisham's "The Runaway Jury." Back in the mid/late nineties I was able to enjoy the book as a courtroom mystery/adventure. Now, if I went back and reread it, I would probably think that many of the things wrong with this country could be traced back to the ideas implicit in this book. I think anti-smoking is still trying to portay itself as a truth uncovering/defending populist grass roots movement, when in reality it's big business, as much of a juggernaut as big tobacco ever was. It's unfortuate that smokers seem to have gotten sold out from both sides in the process. |
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Smoker Sympathizer
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