Quote:
Originally Posted by PursuitOfHappinessParty
You purchase, you're taxed. As long as we don't allow a lateral move in taxation then the taxation doesn't degrade into excessiveness. I'm not a big one for incentives, so I'm probably biased. As to cigarette taxation already in place, that's for other (somewhat related) uses and this would be another tax. As a smoker, that sucks. As a smoker, that is only fair tho, if I were to partake in UHC. $10 a pack would just about do it for the average smoker. I'm not waiting, I REALLY will quit soon.  |
That would work for some thing easy like cigarettes, but for more complicated cases, it'd be a headache to manage... This is my problem with sin taxes - too much micro management. It may work with cigarettes, but are we going to tax all the different cheesecakes out there? This one has X calories, and this one has one Y... but i eat those cakes and work out so i'm not really a health risk.. This is the type of pain OMOF was complaining about, and something i want to avoid... I do not wish to punish or even reward a particular lifestyle. I just want make people aware of their costs.
In my vision, it's very simple - you go to the doctor, and doc tells you your lungs are half gone. If you get them back, you get $$$ (or in your vision, if you don't, you get taxed, which is probably just as well)... But i don't micromanage how it's done - it is between you and your doctor. If you want to quit smoking, that's up to you. But if you want to smoke 20 packs a day and then take some crazy oxygen bath and clear your lungs this way, you can do that too... It's not the smoking that's the problem, it's the lung cancer it causes... If you can find a way to avoid lung cancer while smoking heavily, more power to you, the system doesn't care. This approach eliminates the problem of over management and yet at the same time allows people to live their lives as they see fit. You wanna smoke? Sure, but then do something about your lungs... You wanna eat cheesecakes? Sure, but then hit the gym for a while... People will be making those decisions. All the administrators will have to do is watch the vitals.