Starve them into submission
I have just spent a happy while reading through the Tobacco Atlas which has just been published.
It is rich pickings for anyone who enjoys seeing distorted logic.
Take for example the section on Three New Ways Tobacco Companies Evade Packaging Regulations. Now I love the idea of the Origami pack. Not only ingenious, but fun for the children too! That aside though, they complain about stickers to cover the medi-porn. So? I assume these stickers aren’t even produced by the tobacco companies, yet they are all part of the “plot”. Equally what is wrong with providing cigarette tins? I take it that Tobacco Control want us to buy the pack and then sit staring at it, digesting all their beautifully posed and photoshopped images? They are complaining that we may just discard those images by either hiding them or throwing them away? Good luck with that! Incidentally, none of the three evades any law and there is fuck all Tobacco Control can do about that.
Another page that grabbed my attention was When Tobacco Crowds Out Rice, purely to see what they were waffling about. This was another beauty, claiming that people are starving because they prefer to buy cigarettes. They then go on to compare the cost of cigarettes with basic essentials, and just think how well fed they would be if they didn’t smoke.
Let’s just take a quick look at the chain of logic proposed by Tobacco Control…
The poorest in society smoke -> Smoking is highly addictive -> People are starving because of their addiction -> Raise the price of cigarettes.
Surely if they don’t want people to starve then they should campaign for massive reductions in the price of tobacco? Then the people could buy so much more rice? Using their logic, if I gave up food I could afford to live in absolute luxury and a couple of continental holidays a year.
What led me to all this was an article headlined Big Tobacco made €7,900 for every dead smoker in 2015, according to a new report.
This is just the kind of headline that Tobacco Control loves. It looks dramatic but is utterly trivial and pure nonsense. How much does Big Petrol, Big Bread, Big Milk and a host of other Bigs make from someone’s lifetime? I would warrant it’s a hell of a lot more.
Taking that figure and assuming that the average smoker lives for 40 years then that is a total profit of less than €200 per year. I pay far more than that just in car tax and get fuck all in return!
Incidentally, I note that their aim now is to ban smoking in all public places. This would mean the only place you could legally light up is in your own home.
Aren’t they lovely people?
” Bulgaria and the UK did the right thing to pass tough packaging regulations, and there is no doubt that their public health will improve due to their efforts”
Think The Bestes Frau In The World has a better grip on reality and she’s a paranoid psychotic who thinks demons inhabit just about anything you care to name.
This is precisely the way they work. To them, “there is no doubt that their public health will improve” is tantamount to scientific proof. Let a few months pass and they will start claiming that “public health has improved“. They always work on the suggestion principle where a suggestion becomes fact over time – remember the days when “smoking may damage your health” which suddenly became “smoking will damage you health”?
“a total profit of less than €200 per year.” but no mention that BIG GOVERNMENT earns/steals a similar amount from just a couple of dozen packets of ciggies!
Welcome Xopher [B]! In the interests of fairness, I didn’t mention that as it can be argued that at least I get some of that back in the form of services. Laughable I know, but I’m pre-empting any counter arguments.
I’m one of those who is getting some of it back and get some satisfaction from that but know they’re going to make it back by not having to pay my pension any more! I’ve got to say my local medics are good value looking after me well and keeping me positive.
Everyone gets a small portion of it back in the way of roads, street lights, police etcetera but I have set out on a wee mission – to screw every last penny out of them in pensions, allowances, supplementary payment and the like. Hard work, a bit of fun but quite rewarding! They make it so easy to take it from us, but so hard to get it back!
For those who are interested; I went and saw G today -for the first time in ages-and am pleased to report he is doing well and seems ok on all fronts. Apparently it got so cold where he is that the river that runs passed his house actually froze and even though it’s been a week now the road to his village is still not completely free of snow.
Good to know that, Dwarf – pass on my regards next time.
Besides BigTobacco, BigGovernment, and BigTobaccoControl there is some else who profits substantially from smokers: BigPharmafia!
And it’s not just their patently useless, very expensive quitting gimmicks. Just think about how much money they make with the treatment of all those illnesses “attributable to smoking”! COPD, cancer, CVD, impotence, …
I get the impression that Big Pharma has been sidelined. They had their uses, financing their sales agents for patches and gum, but now TC is into a bigger game. The latter talk far more now about banning than quitting.
Dear Grandad
From http://tobaccoatlas.org/2018/03/01/new-ways-tobacco-companies-evade-packaging-regulations/:
“When we pass laws …”?
I don’t remember voting for them to pass any laws.
Any ‘evasion’ of regulations is done by the customer doing the sticking, folding or transfer to tins, rather than Big Tobacco, something they are perfectly entitled to do.
DP
That is the point they consistently miss. Once I have purchased something it becomes my property, and I can do what I like with the packaging or the contents. How Tobacco Control think they still own the right to dictate how I treat my property is beyond me.
I got my husband one of these:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91LlJG95tJL._SL1500_.jpg