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[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

it's a tax on people that makes bad choices, mostly due to low education and lack of information

Yep, and statistically speaking these folks are overwhelmingly poor/low income

I respect your position but I don't think the government has any responsibility or right to enforce morality/good decision making. Taken to an extreme, the government would also have to ban alcohol and fast food.

Sure cancer is a burden on health care, but so is heart disease.

[–]doubleblog[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You have a point. It is the strongest criticism of high taxes on cigarettes and there is a lot of truth in it. However, high taxes find a lot of support too, since there appears to be no other tool to target it. Think thanks like WHO also advice in favor of it. There is some validity in the argument about social costs that are borne by the public, which may be more relevant when the Government finances health care.