A tax on smokers in my opinion is a joke. There have been studies done (above and more if you look them up) showing how smokers pay more than what they cost.
Yet here in Australia we see a 15%+ tax raise every year on smokes. Why do they do this? They say to curb out smoking, to push the price up so people can't afford it and save the country money in medical bills. Yet, as we can see that is not working well at all, smoking is still going strong and people are forking out more for their fix, as these economists should know this product is elastic, so what did they think will happen if they increased the price, a tiny little drop in demand?
If it doesn't work (clearly not) then why do they continue to slap people with massive tax year-on-year? Easy votes for politicians, only a minority of people smoke, so all the non-smokers don't wan't to see their money getting 'wasted' on medical bills for smokers.
