Lincolnite

I’ll support any smoking ban that is a business or organization’s choice.  This is a great move on the part of the hospitals.

Heh, now you’re gonna see all the doctors and nurses standing on the corner across the street, smoking and warily eyeing the teenagers, standing and smoking across the street from Lincoln East.

You’re correct.  Now you will have people standing across the street.  what a sight that will be.  Doctors and Nurses in full garb hanging around on a street-corner.  Well, that’s Lincoln for you.  I do support a ban INSIDE hospitals….but outside????  What’s next???  Charging people for air???  It’s good that a business can decide FOR THEMSELVES what to do.  Unlike the Bars and restaurants that were given NO CHOICE.  Ah well….welcome to Lincoln…right????

Haha I love cranky smokers.

I can’t decide if that’s a parody post or not.  The contradictions within are startling.  My hope is that when hospital smokers walk 5 miles a day just to smoke then they’ll realize how stupid it is and 1) Quit smoking or 2) Quit their job as a health care professional.

Yes there is some parody in there.  But if you are considering a parody then consider this.  Whis is it that cigarettes are some of the highest taxed items?  But yet they are considered the bane of society?  Seems that almost each time a city/county/state government needs money they raise 3 different things Cigarette tax/then a new gas tax/and then property tax.  Usually in that order.  But when was the last time you heard of anyone raising the alcohol tax?  Could it be that most of them enjoy a dronk now and then?

I personally don’t care if they double the price of cigs with more taxes. I still find it freaking hilarious that smokers PAID FOR the Devaney Center and can’t smoke there. That’s how we should fund the new arena to replace Pershing. Finally a winning plan. I should run for office and that can be one of my two planks to my campaign.

I love the idea, but it won’t make them quit smoking. I’d not think it a terrible idea to have one designated outdoor spot, that’s shielded from everyone else, but still on the property. I hate the whole “take one step out the door and light up” scene - nothing worse than walking through a cloud to get into a smoke-free building.

I’m not advocating that we take away someone’s right to kill himself or herself with smoking - but with the increased costs we all pay in health care and more, I don’t mind taxing them to death first, and making it as difficult as possible to light up and to keep them as far away from me and my kids as possible.

Let’s pursue this arena/cig tax idea.

When did it become right to tax the hell out of a segment of the population based on their behavior and/or consumption of a particular product?  I suppose you could argue that this behavior causes taxpayers millions through health care costs, but I don’t see a $3 tax on Big Macs, so that argument won’t last long.

Taxation based on consumption and behavior happens all the time, Dave K. You’ve heard of the gas tax, right? Then there are the “un-taxes” of subsidies. E-85, anyone?

What irks me about “sin taxes” is the disparity in how the pro-tax crowd tends to sell the tax to the public (“Smokers cost society $$$!”) and how the money actually gets used (e.g. Devaney). I’m not necessarily opposed to a segment of the population being taxed to cover their extra burden on society. More often than not, that’s not how sin taxes are actually used.

I would be interested is seeing the tax comparison of cigarettes vs alcohol and how much each costs society. My guess is that alcohol costs more - police, drunk driving, damage done by intoxicated people, people that end up in the hospital due to liver damage (and stupid drinking induced stunts), etc.

Either number is really hard to come up with, though. You can’t pinpoint the cause of everything, and some people are stupid whether they’re drunk or not (I’d mention specifics, but I’ll refrain.)

For the record, and I drink occassionally, I wouldn’t cry out against a “sin” tax for alcohol or soda or Twinkies, either. I don’t mind those taxes as much because someone can opt out of them. I pay righteous gas taxes since I drive a low mileage SUV. I could opt out by buying a Prius, but I don’t want to. A smoker could opt out of the cig tax by quitting, but he doesn’t want to. A fitness-challenged (that’s fat to you and me) person could opt out of the Twinkie Tax by eating fresh veggies and fruits and lean meats or whatever. And no one on this blog that I recall has come up with funding ideas for a new arena until now.

Sure, such taxes happen all the time, but I’m wondering when it became right.  In addition, there’s a huge difference between taxing a different type of gasoline and targeting smokers.  In the former, you’re making an attempt to get people to buy a particular type of gasoline.  In the latter, you’re heavily taxing a behavior that is politically incorrect.  You’re excusing that taxation by saying that behavior is costly to the rest of society.  However, if that argument was applied to all dangerous behavior, you would encroach upon behaviors that are not yet politically incorrect.

Fletch: And no one on this blog that I recall has come up with funding ideas for a new arena until now.

That’s not true. Several folks have, from the very beginning, proposed a novel method for paying for the arena: private funding.

Dave K: <em>You

So what does building an arena have to do with the costs incurred upon society by smokers?  If they were trying to recover those costs, then all the new tax money would go to health care and addiction treatment.  The main problem with cigarette taxes is that politicians consider them free money.  I’m sorry, but I don’t want our elected officials thinking any taxpayer money is free.

So what does building an arena have to do with the costs incurred upon society by smokers?

Nothing. You know we’re in agreement on that topic, right?

Mr. Wilson - private funding of course would be my choice for an arena. Actually, I’d skip the arena and do with what we have with some upgrades. With the Qwest and Civic and Mid-America center only an hour away and with two of them much newer than ours, plus KC getting a new arena, it’s not like there are a ton of acts we will attract to Lincoln that we are not attracting today. Would I love a bright, shiny new arena? Heck yes. But to me, it’s a want, and not a “need.” Once we have all our “needs” rounded out, let’s go hog wild on the “wants.”