"Sin taxes" on cigarettes have driven the average price of a pack to more than $11. Yet in a city renowned for its innovation and drive, smokers have found ways to work around government attempts at social engineering. These include the booming "loosie" trade, where street entrepreneurs risk arrest to sell loose cigarettes for a dollar each on the streets of Manhattan; tobacco crops blooming in Brooklyn; and a thriving Soho bar/restaurant that survived the smoking ban thanks to an obscure grandfather clause.
With so much tax revenue being lost to the black market, and even the green market, perhaps it's time for a mayor who made billions in the free market to consider allowing business owners to set their own policies, and let the marketplace sort out the demand for smoking and smoke-free establishments.
Produced by Anthony L. Fisher.
Reformed smokers are usually the most intolerant of all. Michael Bloomberg is a reformed smoker. In fact, I once read that he was a very heavy smoker. Sixty cigarettes a day? Can’t find the article now. It has been taken down.
These days, Americans have a lot bigger things to worry about than smoking. These days, Americans have to worry about authoritarianism and their country turning into a dictatorship. I wonder what Mr Bloomberg can do about that? — © Mark Alexander
