Guys like big breasts, girls like big wallets.

Fact of life.

/thread.

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Quote [+]

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Regarding the sales tax revenue misappropriations, we should probably make petitions to hold those state representatives accountable.

Thanks for providing the critical article. I'm also aware that the Chinese Communist Party has a habit of trying to spin news in its favor. I agree that Roosegaarde should've put his tower in an industrial area, and I'd like to see what would happen in such a scenario. I'd also like to see it tested in a city like Los Angeles.

In comparison, a 1996 study by McCubbin and Delucchi estimated a $450 billion upper bound to the societal cost of automobile caused air pollution in the USA. If we ignore inflation, and assume that lower emissions in the modern day are balanced out by higher populations and/or greater usage of gasoline fueled vehicles, this societal cost is still $85 billion over the combined health costs, mortality based economic losses, and most recent smoking treatment expenditures you listed. If the societal cost is actually 50% the estimated upper bound, it's still more than 50% the societal costs caused by cigarettes.

I can accept that Roosegaarde's tower may not work as advertised, and that gasoline fueled cars might not cause as much damage to society as cigarettes. But, I'm alright with paying more sales taxes for cigarettes, especially if the higher prices force less people to smoke, and if the taxes are used to mass produce systems that can clean the air. If used properly, $16 billion or more can go a very long way.

You act like it's simple to re-appropriate public funds to a relevant and more effective program and then quickly suggest these funds are re-appropriated elsewhere.

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Guys like big breasts, girls like big wallets.

Fact of life.

/thread.

I actually like big wallets too. You put a big wallet on big breasts and I'm a happy motherfucker, realistically.

Sure, contributing to taxes is something, but nearly everything does that. I'm sure there's plenty of things the world would be better off without that have sales taxes.

As I'm waking up and checking the [ @ Mention ] I got, I realize my last sentence wasn't all that clear regarding my meaning.

To put it bluntly, cigarette smoking contributing to sales taxes isn't relevant, because anything that replaces it would also contribute to sales taxes. Smoking doesn't actually contribute to society itself at all -- all it really does is pollutes the place, makes shit stink (coming from someone who spent the vast majority of his life with a broken nose that considerably hindered his ability to breathe and smell), and creates a lot of really bad addiction problems that significantly cripple society. It's a crutch at its best, but there's far worse things it brings to society too.

@Vilageidiotx

I mean, I don't hate smokers (in the same sense that I don't hate other people who I think are making bad life choices -- its their life, but it's less forgivable when other people are hurt because of it), but I do hate the idea of smoking and all the things that it does to people and to everything around them. The sheer fact that I don't see any actual benefit to it makes all the negative sort of difficult for me to be neutral about.

With that said though, yeah, you're right about the cost being ridiculous, since I know about people who've not only given themselves severe money problems due to the habit, but have also done some pretty bad shit in their lives in order to get their 'fix'. When all is said and done, it's still a drug.

State governments are supposed to appropriate a minimal amount of funds from tobacco sales taxes per year to cessation/quitting programs but so far only two states even meet the recommended level (North Dakota, Alaska) and one state (Oklahoma) even bothers to meet the half-way mark.

Smoking's part of business at the end of the day, and generally speaking corporations and governments aren't interested in doing something that doesn't fill their pockets immediately. That's the reason why I said previously that it's not 'profitable' in the eyes of the people who can actually make a difference (I meant that in a broad sense, even if the discussion was car pollution at the time). Why would they care about getting rid of smoking in order to benefit society and the economy in the big picture (when less people are being crippled by the habit)? It's not gonna instantly turn them a profit, so they don't care. It's good to know that at least a couple states are using their heads, even if it's not enough to make up for those who aren't.

Anyway, I've got role-play stuff to do, but I figured I'd give my thoughts on some of the new comments.

Ok, how about, like, a week of meth?

I say newborn babies should be able to smoke. It's their own life god damn it.

Ok, how about, like, a week of meth?

Is that an offer?

<Snipped quote by Awson>

Is that an offer?

Vilage can find easy meth.

Folk make it at Wal Mart where he's from.

<Snipped quote by Vilageidiotx>

Vilage can find easy meth.

Folk make it at Wal Mart where he's from.

Apartment complex down the block has at least one meth lab explosion a year. I ain't even joking about that.

<Snipped quote by Dinh AaronMk>

Apartment complex down the block has at least one meth lab explosion a year. I ain't even joking about that.

They seized the means of production [of meth].

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I actually like big wallets too. You put a big wallet on big breasts and I'm a happy motherfucker, realistically.

But is the big wallet more important to you?

<Snipped quote by Vilageidiotx>

But is the big wallet more important to you?

Yes. This isn't to say I expect a big wallet, because that is unrealistic. But if, with all other things being equal, I was given the choice between a busty chick who is broke and a flat chick with a trust fund, the former wouldn't even get a second look.

@Vilageidiotx Well yes, that's your brain talking. But I'm sure your biology would be trying to guide you the other way.

@Vilageidiotx Well yes, that's your brain talking. But I'm sure your biology would be trying to guide you the other way.

Eh, I dunno. I'm not really a boob man tbh. Not to say I am opposed, just that there are other things that catch my eye quicker. But even if attributes higher up the scale are in play, I'm still going to take the money.

I thought about it, and I guess sunbathing works too.

@Shoryu Magami Fair enough.

But, electric vehicles exist, and Elon Musk even open sourced many patents related to them.

Cigarette purchases generally have sales taxes. I'd say that's more than nothing.

Maybe we could start a petition to fund ionic smog vacuums in large cities with said sales taxes, to counterbalance emissions from gasoline fueled cars?

I'd just like to point out that coal power plants provide the vast majority of our power- even driving an electric car means that every time you plug it in, you're still using a polluting energy source. And because solar panels are really expensive, and take a whole bunch to realistically power a home and a recharge station for a car, that's kinda out the window.

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i smoke cigars like an actual monster