CTU is Going on Strike

[southsider2k5]

Peanut allergies kill ~150 per year. Drowning kills about 3500 per year. So yes, you are correct.

 

I propose peanut lifeguards in all cafeterias. Obviously you can't deny people the important, first amendment given right to peanut butter, but 150 deaths per year is a lot.

 

The answer is obviously to ban swimming in any body of water deeper than an inch or two.

[NorthSideSox72]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109048/us-smoki...oming-down.aspx

 

 

even with this dropoff in smokers effecting the situation, the tax increase should have still boosted tax revenue on cigarettes. but the revenue dropped off a cliff.

 

another tobacco tax increase will , very likely, drop cigarette tax related revenue even more.

Heh, I like the brief spike around the time the markets collapsed.

 

[bmags]

To be fair, Chicago's trend might be different than the national. This is actually fairly fascinating to me. A 50% decrease over 6 years in revenue. I wonder how much is evasion and how much is decreased smoking. I wonder if there's data for surrounding counties.

[mr_genius]

To be fair, Chicago's trend might be different than the national. This is actually fairly fascinating to me. A 50% decrease over 6 years in revenue. I wonder how much is evasion and how much is decreased smoking. I wonder if there's data for surrounding counties.

 

good point. if i were to guess, i would say most of the drop is from smokers buying from outside of cook. the savings are probably just too much to ignore for them. it would be interesting to see the revenue increases out of state and in collar counties. i'm also sure more taxes lead to some people to quit.

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06...cook-county-tax

 

But even as taxes on cigarettes climbed, the revenue in Cook County dropped. In 2006, the county garnered more than $200 million in cigarette taxes. That number plummeted to $131 million in 2010, according to annual reports.....

 

Larry DeBoer, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, noted that Indiana benefits as taxes spike in neighboring states.

 

"There's no doubt that commerce goes back and forth across the borders," DeBoer said. "If Illinois increases its tax by $1, we'll realize about $10 million more in cigarette tax revenue."

 

Authorities said they could not estimate how many cigarette tax scofflaws are operating in Chicago and Cook County, but they acknowledged no amount of enforcement will stamp out the problem completely.

 

"You can buy a carton of cigarettes (out of the county) and almost triple your money if you bring them up to Chicago," Anton said. "It's too lucrative for a lot of these places not to do it."

 

i guess the next step is to build more prisons and start arresting people.

 

oh but i suppose all those prisons cost money, but more prison guard jobs! probably still an overall financial loser.

Edited September 21, 2012 by mr_genius