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by garhkal
on Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:31 pm |
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WARNING. HYPOTHETICAL situation.
Lets say some rich people built a new large island and opened it just to smokers. Many smokers in the US move to this persons new island, and as such, tax revenue from ciggies drops considerably.
What group do you think the govt would tax next to make up for it? |
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garhkal
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by activist0000
on Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:40 pm |
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garhkal wrote: WARNING. HYPOTHETICAL situation.
Lets say some rich people built a new large island and opened it just to smokers. Many smokers in the US move to this persons new island, and as such, tax revenue from ciggies drops considerably.
What group do you think the govt would tax next to make up for it?
Let's see. How about pornography viewers? Or would that be something that the majority actually enjoys doing in the privacy of their own homes, and therefore would not want to pay an extra tax on?
How about legalizing and taxing prostitution? Seems like that would be almost inevitable, if the tobacco tax money dried up. Think of all the additional income tax that would generate. Best of all, the people who actually visit prostitutes would be too embarrassed to stand up for themselves, making it lucrative to keep raising the taxes at every available opportunity.
People would be too ashamed to speak up because their spouse might find out what they were doing. Perfect sitting ducks! |
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activist0000
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by Smoker Sympathizer
on Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:31 am |
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I would throw myself on the mercy of the smokers and beg to be allowed permanent resident status on the island. Barring that, though, I'd say obese people would take the brunt of it. The government's already painting the bullseyes on their backs, so a smoker exodus would be just the catalyst needed.
Does anyone find the whole 2/3 overweight thing kind of suspicious? I remember reading somewhere that the guidelines changed and that people went to bed one night in the normal weight category and woke up the next morning officially "overweight." They keep changing the rules so more and more people are "overeaters", "overdrinkers", and have "problems." How about they let individuals decide that for themselves? |
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by garhkal
on Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:24 pm |
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| No shit. We had one guy who for the past 8 years, the navy has classed as slightly overweiht (4 lb over what they alow for his height) and 1% over for body fat. It does not matter to them though that he can out run almost 80% of the command, do 90 push ups in 2 min, or 60 sit ups.. As of last cycle, he is too over weight and is being processed for discharge. |
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garhkal
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by gilster
on Wed Aug 12, 2009 6:20 pm |
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They changed the levels of everything:
Weight BMI change - more people classified as fat/obese - put in another category
Cholesterol change - more people on Statins - more people required to see a doctor every 6 months to make sure muscle tissue isn't deteriorating. (you know - muscles - like the Heart!)
High blood pressure change - get more people on high blood pressure medicine
BAL - Alcohol limit - more tickets
Smoking Bans - more Nicorette
Isn't this neat?/sarc
And - to be technical - More advertising for guys who can't get it up to sell more Viagra - 'cause you are supposed to get it up 18 thousand times a day like an 18 year old - OY VEY!
We are trained to think we are unhealthy and therefore should be under a doctors care at all times.
And then we get this Crappy Nationalized Healthcare Plan being shoved down our throats.
Run away----run far, far away...... |
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gilster
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by Smoker Sympathizer
on Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:37 pm |
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| If the health nazi's are so keen on warning labels, they should put them on their own statistics. Most people when they hear or read that 2/3 of the country is overweight, will probably think, "oh my word, there's a crisis we have to do something", instead of "okay, how are they defining overweight? How did they arrive at that figure? Are they taking into account frame and bone density, etc?" I'm not saying I'm an expert at this, but I know enough about statistics to understand that the same set of data can be filtered different ways to produce very different results. |
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by runamok
on Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:10 am |
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Smoker Sympathizer wrote: I'd say obese people would take the brunt of it. The government's already painting the bullseyes on their backs...
The political climate is not such that they can single out and target the overweight. You won't see any scales at McDonalds or the grocery store or any questions on any tax form concerning your BMI.
Only smokers buy tobacco but everybody, fat, skinny or in-between, buys food. We will all be victims of the war on obesity in the form of higher taxes, perhaps even bans (we're already seeing this with trans-fat), on politically un-favored foods. |
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runamok
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by libertarian99
on Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:27 pm |
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runamok wrote: Smoker Sympathizer wrote: I'd say obese people would take the brunt of it. The government's already painting the bullseyes on their backs...
The political climate is not such that they can single out and target the overweight. You won't see any scales at McDonalds or the grocery store or any questions on any tax form concerning your BMI.
Only smokers buy tobacco but everybody, fat, skinny or in-between, buys food. We will all be victims of the war on obesity in the form of higher taxes, perhaps even bans (we're already seeing this with trans-fat), on politically un-favored foods.
It's just the beginning of public shaming and acceptance of the idea that it's the teacher's business if you're overweight. I'm not against educating kids. I just don't think personal measurements should be on their report card because it violates a person's right to privacy, and it conditions kids to believe that such violations are normal and acceptable facts of life.
Report cards are so strongly associated with success or failure in children's minds, it doesn't really matter that the BMI is not a real grade. If it's on the report card, they are going to associate it in their minds with passing or failing.
I especially don't think schools have any business putting that information on report cards when they do such an abysmal job of feeding the kids low-calorie, nutritious foods. Most schools are still doling out cheeseburgers, fries and pizza in their lunchrooms, which does nothing to help overweight kids learn to avoid calorie-dense foods.
It might seem like a small thing, but what children are conditioned to accept in grade school can prepare them for a lifetime of governmental bullying. |
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libertarian99
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by Slearwig
on Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:12 am |
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| When all else fails, the government assaults the singles population and then see-saws between the young set and the middle-aged, just like the tax breaks for marrieds or the overkill regarding 'family-values' in 'the public interest'. |
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by Spindisk
on Fri Aug 14, 2009 10:36 am |
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You have it all wrong, guys. If your fictional (but wonderful) island situation were to occur and US citizens moved over there, the govt would simply invade that island or find some way to annex it into the US as a protectorate. Then not only would they get their pound of flesh, they wouldn't allow us to vote.
On the other comments, I do believe we are well on our way to the "Fat Police". Now that we've got rid of all those nasty smokers, these fat selfish pigs are a drain on our national health care! What about the children? We don't want socialized or a single payer health care system, and unless we do something about all these fat healthcare hogs the insurance companies and hospitals are going to keep raising their rates on us.
Next verse, same as the first...and the second, third, fourth.... |
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Spindisk
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