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I am not a smoker, however I know several and I am writing this to address some of their concerns. In the state of kentucky as with several other states, smoking and smokers are being used to make up for short falls in the government of that state. In the state of kentucky the governor is actually touring the state trying to promote a seventy three cent tax on each pack of cigerettes, while informing everyone who listens that the millions of dollars generated will make up for the lack of funds in the budget. Only when asked he will say its to keep our youth from smoking and then he quickly returns to the topic of the funds created. This governor is not alone in the way he does these things there are political people all over the country using the same techniques.

I feel society is OK with this because of all the "smoking is bad and second hand smoke kills" campaigns. I ask the readers now; "is it truly OK to tax people beyond belief because of a very bad habit? I ask the question in this manner because these huge taxes started before "second hand smoke was even considered to be a huge problem. It almost seems like society has determined that over taxing is ok as long as it is for something bad that causes death or cancer or if it will help keep our youth from smoking.

Should it not be the responsibility of the parents to teach the youth how terrible smoking is instead of saying "its ok for the government to progressively over tax certain people because it will keep the kids from smoking". It would be just the same to say "its ok for the government to torture americans as much as they want as long as we get information of some use" or "its OK for the government to lock all people up that drink alcohol, it will keep people from drinking and driving"

The truth of the matter is whenever each time it is deemed that the "cigarette tax" no longer generates enough revenue to support th state budget then the tax is raised even higher and everyone is happy and excited, When this campaign first started it was all about urging people to stop smoking and the fact that they were "bailing out the government" was not spoken of, now it is primarily about the revenue.

If society and the government wanted to do the stop smoking campaign correctly then would they not simply make cigarettes illegal instead of using the smokers as a crutch to make up for shortfalls?

I pose this simple question to the readers: when everyone finally quits smoking, who will we over tax next?

Learn more about this author, Christopher Stone.
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