“My compassion for someone is not limited to my estimate of their intelligence.” - Dr. Gillian Taylor in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
My grandfather was a very young man in the 1930’s during The Depression. He lived about the same way as many others did during that time, possibly worse, but he was living in the rural south where things were pretty tough even when it may have been better in other parts of the country. He picked cotton and did odd jobs to support himself and his teenaged wife, my grandmother. As bad as things were, he was still able to afford one leisure time activity; smoking. This is not the case for his descendants.
In the 1980’s the cost of a video game cartridge for a home
gaming system was about $60.00. In 2022 the cost of a video game disc is still
$60.00. A VHS movie for home viewing cost a whopping $95.00 in the 1980’s. I
couldn’t afford them. I had to either rent movies or join a video club to buy
them. The cost of a DVD or Blu-ray movie now is between $15.00 and $24.00 on
average. That is a substantial price drop. When you factor in that the
technology, expertise to create games and films, and the cost of producing both
has risen sharply, these things are much more of a bargain now than they were
40 years ago.
In the 1960’s the price for a carton of cigarettes was about
$3.00. Thirty years later, in the early 1990’s, the price for a carton was
around $10.00 in the mid-south region of the US. So the price had risen seven
dollars in thirty years time. Now after
another thirty-two years the cost ranges from $80.00 to $100.00 or more per
carton which is a jump of seventy to ninety dollars or more depending on what region
of the country you live in. A seven dollar price hike in thirty years time is
not unreasonable. A ninety dollar price hike in another thirty years is not
only unreasonable it is also price gouging and downright robbery. My nephew who
lives near New York told me that 20 years ago cigarettes were $80.00 per carton
there and are double that now. I have listened to all of the reasons/excuses
for why the cost of this product has risen so much but none of them really hold
water in a country with no national healthcare to use as a scapegoat. The
healthcare excuse doesn’t even hold water in Canada, the UK, or any other
country that does provide it when the healthcare costs for illness related to
smoking is no higher and, in many cases, less than the costs for automobile
injuries, eating meat or high carb junk foods, drinking carbonated beverages,
alcohol consumption, or gun violence. I understand that a pack of cigarettes
cost appx. $28.00 in Australia and in Pakistan a pack costs $0.82. These are the highest and the lowest prices
in the world and only Pakistan has a reasonable price. Good thing for Pakistan
when you look at the devastation there right now. As cigarette smoking is
considered to be a stress reliever those people need all of the help they can
get. We in America are being squeezed to death on absolutely everything that
might make our lives a little more bearable with everything that has been put
upon us. In one of my previous posts about housing I quoted Theodor Adorno with
respect to the elites taking everything that the poor have left away from them.
This is yet another example of that and the whole world apparently believes
that is acceptable. Except Pakistan.
Since the tobacco excuse is illogical when compared to any
one of the above mentioned health related problems, and these are not cited as
an excuse for charging an exorbitant amount for their purchase, the outrageous
prices that we now pay for tobacco products appear to actually be a penalty for
being either poor, or of non-white ethnicity, or they are just using us as
convenient victims for the manufacturers and sellers to pay exorbitant salaries
to their higher ups. It is also possible that it is the ease of levying massive
taxes on a product that has been demonized and vilified for decades. I have to
wonder if there is a simple economics answer for this that I do not know about
but as I learn more and more about the mechanics and philosophies in economic
theory it seems that capitalist economics are whatever capitalists want them to
be at any given time. Whenever those who
make the economic rules decide that they want to make more money, and there
seems to have been a decision of this kind beginning in the 1970’s which has
doubled and tripled and quadrupled in the decades since, you find yourself
dealing with monumentally inflated prices on housing, healthcare, automobiles,
gasoline, and yes, cigarettes.
So, after one has already given up other things that one
might enjoy doing for the sake of spending less money so we can hopefully,
continue to buy food and still pay the utility bills, is there a good reason
for placing an incredible hardship on people who are already banned from
smoking in public and in our cars and in some places that we might want to
live? There was a video a few years back of a supporter of Senator Rand Paul
who was holding his foot on a woman’s head because she was not in agreement on
his political choice that was so appalling it hurt to see it. I do get tired of
feeling like this country has it’s foot on our heads for daring to have a
pastime that some others may not agree with or might object to. A smoker having
a cigarette is not going to clog up your arteries or eat a hole in your
digestive system or send you to the emergency room with a bullet in you. I do
not agree with or subscribe to many of the activities that other people may
enjoy doing but it is not my place to fold my arms with a smirk and say that
you deserve to have to pay 10 to 20 times more than a product is worth because
you have no right to the privilege when I do not approve of it.
One of the saddest things about what has been done to people
who smoke is that few people other than smokers care about it. If it isn’t a
problem for you then it isn’t a problem at all. A friend of mine who was a nonsmoker
previously told me, “I cared about this issue even when I didn’t smoke because
I know an injustice when I see one.”
This is a rare thing to hear because it is a rare person who actually
gives a damn if it isn’t directly affecting them.
Smokers are not to blame for the lies and deceptions of the
cigarette manufactures yet we are vilified for using their product as if we are
responsible. Using a potentially harmful product is done by anyone who drives a
car, drinks alcohol, uses power tools, takes prescription drugs, or buys a
firearm. These things are purchased by choice and it follows that one
understands that most things on the planet have a potential for harm even the
foods that we eat, and in far too many places, the water that we drink is so
dangerous that it can and has caused brain damage. When you think of a smoker
try to remember that our use of tobacco products is not an indicator of
anything more than it is something that we like to do. There are no other
factors involved in it. It should not be viewed as a luxury item that one
should be charged an arm and a leg for. Its potential for harm is no greater
than many other products which are sold in this country. It has just been
selected as one that can be conveniently used to spread some more capitalist
wealth around and create a subset of people to victimize.
The ingredients used to make a cigarette are neither rare
nor difficult to obtain. It is tobacco, paper, and a fiber for the filter.
These things do not have to be imported and obtaining them is not difficult. I
understand that tobacco companies have been sued many times over non-disclosure
of the possible dangers of smoking but that is not the fault of the consumer.
Damn right! We don’t see this level of unfairness on other vices. It is unfair, immoral, and unjust! Thank you for posting on this important matter!
ReplyDeleteLove your comment. You would be a good person to know.
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