That's the contentious issue for me. IMHO mere political correctness. It's OK to dump on smokers and drinkers, and tax the hell out of them because it's "politically acceptable". But don't pick on the fatties. Oh, no... it's not their fault.
Why not just put a warning label on everything! I'm pretty sure some numpty beurocrat can come up with a reason why pretty much anything you buy can cause you health problems or kill you. The nanny state will finally be complete then.
Gotta admit i picked up a few cuban cigars at Dubai duty free when i was on a stopover there.I wouldn't buy them here though, too much tax.
Can't find mention of it on online info but the paper form was very specific. I think it was monetary value, not ounces and kilo's.
I think it is wholly inappropriate to selectively target minorities with narrow, emotionally charged critisisms and pitch them against the tax payer, without considering the whole of the tax system and where the politicians spend the money that they forcibly take from the public. For instance, compare the value of healthcare for a smoker against the value of above average superannuation expenses for parliamentarians and public servants, say. Or saving the life of a smoker against the costs of millitary support of the middle-east wars of recent years. Or the the general value of supporting Canberra versus saving smokers. Or pink bats and cash spalshes and carbon tax rebates against a failing public medical system. This kind of discriminative thinking over minority groups sets one up for feelings of superiority over others and that you know what's best for them, while the real issue is the government is taxing and spending on all manner of things beyond its social mandate and don't want you thinking about it. How about when one pays tax we get to select the programs our money supports? Now that would be living in a democracy and I bet you we would have a fully funded public health care system and an exceptional education system! There is a whole bunch of stuff to fix before anyone need worry about commiting smokers (or other minorities) to death and if they were fixed, there would be no need for such a selective, miserly, immoral debate. Edit: Or for that matter, the cost and benefit of force feeding fluoride to the population, poisining babies fed on formula, polluting the food chain and the ecosystem at large, versus the financial needs of a medical system capable of handling minority issues within the population.
This is not correct. It may have been correct in the past (it probably was when Sir Humphrey said it in that Yes Prime Minister episode), but it isn't true any longer. The NHS in the UK did a study recently (2010? 2011?) that calculated the cost of treating smokers for smoking related illnesses and divided the cost by the amount of tax collected on the number of cigarettes sold in the UK the previous year. The price of a packet of 20 would need to be some where in the region of 65-70 (vs. 7.00-7.50 RRP) to reflect the true economic cost of treating smoking related illnesses. Non-smokers pay a hugely disproportionate amount of tax in relation to the total cost of smoking. The NHS study is public and can be found on their website. (Disclaimer: Smoker for 12 years, smoke-free for 6 months).
As someone about to get slammed with a 30% hike in my health insurance (because that's so fair), I do wonder how much individuals who make suicidal life choices actually cost me as part of my insurance premiums? I also wonder when I see a rather large individual get on a 'plane, take up their own seat plus 1/2 of the seat next to them, then see some skinny individual get slammed with additional overweight baggage fee, how is that fair either?
Junk food is so cheap, you can feed a whole family a bucket of fried chicken parts for less money than it would cost to buy ingredients of a decent meal. Added to that, if you have both parents working then they don't have time to fix up a meal. They can pick up a ready cooked meal in the length of time it takes to queue up, hell, they don't even have to get out of the car on the way home. Jamie Oliver may be able to cook up something in 15 minutes but no one taught me to cook in school, nothing beyond toast anyway. Throw in the amount of yummy sugar in the caffeinated carbonated drinks, the flavour enhancing salt in the food and you have some tasty, cheap, easy and fast food. When I was a kid McDonalds was a treat when my grandparents took me out for the day, it was never meant to replace meals. People with less time, less income and less education will take the cheapest most convenient way to feed their family. With the incidence of obesity in Australia increasing it is only going to get worse and fat people will be considered normal.
In the states I hear you can get whole value(type) meals for a couple of bucks. I think here it's marketed as cheap but most times you can get a lot more for your money at woolies (your time not included).
With your thinking. Why not let people who drink alchohol, eat fast food and processed foods, have their daily coffee, drink energy drinks, fruits and vegies laced with chemicals, and lets not forget most of the supermarket food is killing them....die?
I have a better one let all car accident victims who drive drunk die. Let all alcohol related disease remain untreated and let them die. Let all attempted suicides die. Where do you people come from? I would far rather give my tax dollars to help people with illness even if they were partly or completely caused by stupidity, than give lazy good for nothing lay abouts money for not working. I would rather treat people who are ill than politicians who feed off the public trough. I would rather treat illness whatever the cause than send troops to some hell hole in Asia to fight a war that no one understands. Wake up people we all walk a fine line between health and illness that changes in 1 second.
Most start smoking during their teens so if we can somehow stop it at an early age it would help. Teenagers think its cool to light up then they get addicted and boom they smoke for life
I just wish there was a way to stop walking through clouds of cigarette poison in public. Walking through the Sydney CBD on a weekday is like walking through a gigantic ashtray. Especially now I have child. Keep your poison away from her!
to my understanding doctors can refuse to operate on a smoker or someone that is obese, due to higher risk of complications. (in some circumstances) I think if you have knowingly abused your body you should be put higher on a waiting list vs someone that's taken better care. I highly doubt doctors will stop operating on these people though, as that's where most of their income comes from.
There is so little we understand about disease and please don't refer to our local news and magazines as reference. The risk that being overweight poses is pretty ill defined. I am not talking about 250kg overweight but moderately overweight with or even obese with a BMI of 30 does not pose much of a risk in contrast to the BS you hear on TV or what indoctrinated non thinking doctors have to say. This terrible ad on "toxic fat" is a hoot. Fat is not toxic it is required for life. I have seen many very unhealthy thin people and very healthy overweight people. This idea you will operate on a thin person before a overweight person is the most stupid thing I have ever heard and I have heard many stupid things. Like finances are distorted by our media don't expect health reporting to be honest. Interestingly most of these health experts are basically ignorant and have very little understanding of basic medicine. Our "health" boards and councils are good examples of this hype. About refusing to operate on a patient there are many reasons .........smoking is a low priority.
