Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Sin Taxes

I always seem to be reading something.
99% of the time I wind up reading something about the encoraching nanny state here in America.
Today Google Alerts pointed me to something I think got published on Monday in the Washington Times.


Washington Times Comments
All politicians that promote sin taxes are two faced. They never want you to quit alcohol or smoking, they just use that as a ruse to increase taxes on those products...if they wanted to really get you to quit, they wouldn't bank on the money from those "sin taxes" . 
The story itself was a small mostly angry  rant about how out of touch Bloomberg really is.
He seems to be upsetting constituents on a number of fronts.
But what I took away from that article wasn't the angry person upset about the ground zero victims and their families.

I found the comments section was much more informative and useful to my personal experiences in the world.
The smoking ban alienates a minority group of folks who are indulging in the use of a product that is despite some efforts isn't illegal to use.

No smoking inside,no smoking outside and yet tobacco is still a very legal and extremely regulated consumer product,fully legal to purchase,but where it can be used is being prohibited.

There is always a reason why feel good politics seemingly does something without attempting to stamp out the root cause of the problem.
It always comes down to money.
There is no real concern for anyone's health or welfare.

The comments from the story I read today are what I linked to,not because the story itself wasn't interesting but because the comment left by a non -smoker rings so much truer than anything I have ever read about why feel good politics is so prevalent in the world today.