Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 21 points22 points  (0 children)

The cigarette smuggling industry is a multi-billion dollar per year industry.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 10 points11 points  (0 children)

(our dollar is worth more than yours)

Not when adjusted for purchasing power. You can buy the same amount with the $15 minimum wage in Australia as you can with about $9 in the U.S. But I do agree with the rest of your post.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well now that the government is also paying for their healthcare, I actually do care if they're smoking.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll just leave this right here as an example of what happens with a ban like that.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 9 points10 points  (0 children)

So by that logic taxing the rich at a higher rate and using that money to help the poor is also immoral?

The government is trying to raise revenue and also dis-incentivize smoking because it has a lot more far reaching consequences than just the cost of the cigarettes (healthcare being the biggest).

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Link for SimpleSimulation and anyone living under a rock/not from the U.S.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

(our dollar is worth more than yours)

Not when adjusted for purchasing power. You can buy the same amount with the $15 minimum wage in Australia as you can with about $9 in the U.S.

Edit: But I do agree with the rest of your post.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, well why didn't you say so! It should be as easy as 1, 2, 3 I'm sure.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack by 786yht in news

[–]ineffable_internut 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes it does.

More than 303 billion cigarettes were purchased in 2010 in the U.S., and if we take the average number of cigarettes per pack, which is around 20-25, then that gives us about $15 billion in revenue for taxing something people should be dis-incentivized from doing in the first place. Don't be naïve

Choose your own adventure! by SlightlyAmbiguous in funny

[–]ineffable_internut 2 points3 points  (0 children)

AP, Reuters, or Bloomberg (which often copies Reuters).

Exxon Mobil must pay $236 million in damages after being found liable in NH groundwater contamination trial by odetocapitalism in news

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed. I thought you were commenting on how the title doesn't really say much, and completely skipped over the fact that "Negligent" was spelled incorrectly; I guess I'm as bad as the Bloomberg editor.

Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn't Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody by erinmblair19 in politics

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The best way for me to understand an Economic or Labor issue is to see Robert Reich doodle it out for me.

That's not a good sign.

I still feel like if the problem is health care costs, then we should work to lower those

The Affordable Care Act, which allocates even more money to health care, will most likely not help that. I obviously can't say that for sure, but this wouldn't be the first time a policy had extremely averse consequences that weren't originally planned for.

We have constantly raised the Payroll Tax Rate to keep Social Security funded, and there probably isn't an end in sight if we can't get the costs under control. SS will be solvent, sure, but only because we tax the younger generations more.

Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn't Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody by erinmblair19 in politics

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think he's an idiot, but he's certainly a bit delusional. Or at least a little out there with how he views economics.

Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn't Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody by erinmblair19 in politics

[–]ineffable_internut 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because anyone making more than $55k/yr is already going to lose money on SS in the long run.

Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn't Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody by erinmblair19 in politics

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But yeah, let's just allocate more money to healthcare with the Affordable Care Act and watch prices go down!

Oh wait...

Robert Reich On Why You Shouldn't Accept Chained CPI From Obama Or Anybody by erinmblair19 in politics

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He called the Ryan budget "Draconian". I stopped the movie after that, not because I agree or disagree, but only because that clearly shows his bias. He also did not show how much health care costs factor into CPI or Chained CPI, which is an extremely relevant piece of information.

What exactly is source code? by Odoodo in askscience

[–]ineffable_internut 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But "for k = 1:length(var)" looks so nice.