CIGARETTES! SMOKE! DISGUST!
Why should we pay for them!
Why should we pay for them!
If you are a smoker, do you feel marginalized? Good, and so you should, there is a good reason why you should feel that way. Smokers cost the rest of us a small fortune. The National Health Service spends 5% of its annual budget on treating and caring for people who smoke.
Recent research conducted by Oxford University calculated that the direct cost is estimated around £5.2 billion for 2005/2006. Today that figure would be even higher. Indeed, they go even further and state that the annual cost is still likely to be an underestimate.
Recent research conducted by Oxford University calculated that the direct cost is estimated around £5.2 billion for 2005/2006. Today that figure would be even higher. Indeed, they go even further and state that the annual cost is still likely to be an underestimate.
The calculation does not take into account the cost of indirect care, or the costs of treating directly related diseases caused by passive smoking; numerous illnesses are aggravated by smoking, but cannot be directly linked, but are still a cost.
Dr Steven Allender, of the British Heart Foundation Promotion Research Group, concluded that: "Smoking is still a considerable public burden in the UK. Accurately establishing the burden terms of death, disability and financial costs is important for informing national public health policy."
The report, recently published by the Tobacco Control Group, calculated that around 110,00 people died in 2005, directly from smoking, which accounts for 19% of all male deaths, and around 10% of all female deaths.
The defense the smoker comes up with is almost always the same. “We pay tax on our cigarettes, far more than the Health Service spends on us.” Let’s look at the tax revenue figures for 2005/2006, and see if this is in fact the situation.
Excise Duty amounts to £8 billion with VAT another £1.9 billion a total of £9.8 billion.
So yes, on the surface, the argument is a sound one. The contribution to the Exchequer is almost double. There, a smoker would say, we are vindicated. If it wasn’t for us smokers, the argument runs, the government would have to find other ways of raising taxation. So leave us alone, we harm no one only ourselves, it’s a free country, so it’s up to us if we wish to smoke.
The argument, thought compelling, is flawed and puerile. There are other costs associated with smoking, which far outstrip the related illnesses identifiable with the National Health Service.
There is an indirect cost which is incalculable, but nevertheless, the cost is still real. By the smoker suffering an illness through smoking, which results in being unable to work. So instead of making a net contribution towards the economy, paying taxes and National Insurance, the smoker becomes a direct burden on the taxpayer. In other words, goes from a positive to a negative contributor, and becomes a part of the great herd of people who claim sickness benefit as a direct result of smoking. So the taxation argument will not hold water.
I think within two decades smoking will become illegal, and I hope I live to see it. No one needs to smoke, it is the most foulest of habits, and I can’t see for the life of me why people do it, intelligent people at that. And what is more, they feel it is their right to smoke (that I can accept, we live in a free country) but to throw away the cigarette stump onto the floor, and then to stamp on it and to leave it lying there for someone else to clean up is unforgivingly arrogant. You can always tell the outide area where the smokers are, just look to the floor and see the mess, but even without the mess, the area reeks of smoke, which gets ingrained into the walls and floor.
Dr Steven Allender, of the British Heart Foundation Promotion Research Group, concluded that: "Smoking is still a considerable public burden in the UK. Accurately establishing the burden terms of death, disability and financial costs is important for informing national public health policy."
The report, recently published by the Tobacco Control Group, calculated that around 110,00 people died in 2005, directly from smoking, which accounts for 19% of all male deaths, and around 10% of all female deaths.
The defense the smoker comes up with is almost always the same. “We pay tax on our cigarettes, far more than the Health Service spends on us.” Let’s look at the tax revenue figures for 2005/2006, and see if this is in fact the situation.
Excise Duty amounts to £8 billion with VAT another £1.9 billion a total of £9.8 billion.
So yes, on the surface, the argument is a sound one. The contribution to the Exchequer is almost double. There, a smoker would say, we are vindicated. If it wasn’t for us smokers, the argument runs, the government would have to find other ways of raising taxation. So leave us alone, we harm no one only ourselves, it’s a free country, so it’s up to us if we wish to smoke.
The argument, thought compelling, is flawed and puerile. There are other costs associated with smoking, which far outstrip the related illnesses identifiable with the National Health Service.
There is an indirect cost which is incalculable, but nevertheless, the cost is still real. By the smoker suffering an illness through smoking, which results in being unable to work. So instead of making a net contribution towards the economy, paying taxes and National Insurance, the smoker becomes a direct burden on the taxpayer. In other words, goes from a positive to a negative contributor, and becomes a part of the great herd of people who claim sickness benefit as a direct result of smoking. So the taxation argument will not hold water.
I think within two decades smoking will become illegal, and I hope I live to see it. No one needs to smoke, it is the most foulest of habits, and I can’t see for the life of me why people do it, intelligent people at that. And what is more, they feel it is their right to smoke (that I can accept, we live in a free country) but to throw away the cigarette stump onto the floor, and then to stamp on it and to leave it lying there for someone else to clean up is unforgivingly arrogant. You can always tell the outide area where the smokers are, just look to the floor and see the mess, but even without the mess, the area reeks of smoke, which gets ingrained into the walls and floor.
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