ArrantPariah wrote:
It makes sense for the government to impose special taxes on things that are socially undesireable.
So would you be ok with the government taxing those who have socially undesirable traits? Maybe just those who have socially undesirable traits that you feel are easily overcome? Or is it just things that you personally do not approve of?
It depends on where you are as to how much of an outcast a person is made to be by smoking. I live in a small backwoods rural town in the middle of the Deep South Baptist Bible Belt. Baptists do not approve of smoking. Neither do the Bible Methodists around here. However, many do anyway and it's really just overlooked. The most you may get is a disapproving look from an older person and they may tell you how "Your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost so you shouldn't pollute it" or some such. That's about all you'll hear about it though. Here, you can smoke in all three restaurants, you can smoke in all the convenience stores, you can smoke in the garages, you can smoke in the liquor store. You cannot smoke in Wal Mart, either grocery store, one of the drug stores (you can in the other one), the Dr's offices, the post office or the church ran thrift store. The hospital has a covered, screened in patio that you can smoke on. It has outdoor heaters for winter and ceiling fans for summer. The patients, staff, and visitors go there. Now, you would imagine that with all this smoking going on that it's a nonsmokers nightmare, right? Nope. Unless you are in a smoking designated area (restaurants or the hospital) people always ask others around them if they mind, that is if they don't know if the person smokes or if they know the person doesn't but doesn't mind if they do but it's still polite to ask. Sometimes a person minds and the smoker just doesn't smoke right there or then. It's not a big deal to most people here because neither side is obnoxious about it. I've asked nonsmokers in my own home if they minded if I smoked and if they said it does bother them then I either don't smoke in my own home when they are there or I go outside. It's just simple manners.
As for why people start smoking, which was discussed a few pages back, I actually polled about 30 people I know who smoke. Nobody said they did it to look cool, several said they did it to look older back in the 70's and 80's. Most just wanted to try it because their parents, friends, relatives, etc smoke. Just to see what it's like. That's actually why I tried it. I wanted to see what it was like and figured that when I didn't enjoy it at first I must be missing something so I kept at it until I got it lol. That's usually how it works. The "coolness" factor was over with in the 80's when they passed laws to ban the smoking areas for students at high school. There were no more places that the "cool kids" hung out based on that habit, so there was no need for anyone to take up the habit to hang out with them. Some did start because they wanted to hang out in the smoking areas with friends, but it wasn't because smoking itself "looked cool" it was like if you hung out there and didn't smoke it was like sitting in an ice cream store all day with lactose intolerance. It made no sense and made it look like you were trying to hang out with them too hard. Sort of like the Friends episode where Rachel starts smoking because her boss does and she notices that the other girls who work there go outside and chat and smoke in groups and her boss is in that group. She doesn't want to miss out on the camaraderie, the gossip or the chance of career advancement based on those things.
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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.
The link to the forum is
http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com