Singapore New Smoking Taxes and Other Associated Stupidities

[Bafana]

Anyone want to defend what the Singapore Government is doing with the new taxes on Smokes and the lean towards more restrictions on where people are allowed to smoke...

The suck IMHO and lack justification/intelligence and just a scam to increase tax revenue without upsetting everyone.

Lets face it everybody knows smoking is bad for you so who cares what a person who smokes thinks about taxes that only effect them...

BTW any got a light or an email contact for some balck market Indo/Malay Malboro Lights (3 sing a pack of twenty lah )

[jpatokal]

I will go on the record that I fully support the Government's policy to tax the hell out of cars and cigarettes. I use neither, so this is an excellent way to get all you lazy bums to pay my taxes 8)

The fact that they dare ban the sale of shisha tobacco for waterpipes, on the other hand, is a barbarous outrage!

[Bafana]

Alamak...

You are truely heartless (I suppose its better then the lungless I will become)...

It just irks me that everything to do for fun in Singapore that a typical hot blooded male expat enjoys is so expensive. Especially compared to other centres like KL, Jakarta, Bangkok and so on.

I also belive its just two faced window dressing.

They know none of these things wokrs - They just want more money.

[dot dot dot]

[Bafana]

Eric

I believe the current laws on Smoking are OK in the sense that even as I am a smoker I am aware of the non-smokers around me and know its not nice to blow smoke over other them in ques or restaraunts, etc.

I am just ranting because one of the reasons given for increasing the price of cigarettes is only to make more money. They say its to discourage young smokers but if 9:50 a packet did'nt discourage them then what difference will 11:50 make apart from 2 more tax dollars per pack...

BTW why do non-smokers and ex-smokers feel the need and the right to hate smoking and smokers with a passion.

Ok if you don't like smokers then fair enough but to say I should leave Singapore if I don't like it is over the top as I as a person have a right to express my opinion and wants in life. If I was to sugget to you stay out of pubs and nightclubs if you don't like smokers how would you feel.

You would probably tell me to mind my onw business and don't be so narrow minded - And you would be right.

If I was constantly bashing Singapore and Singaporeans I could also see your point in redirecting my life signs to other shores but I do not - In fact I believe the opposite is true.

If you love something can you not just hate one or two small things without having to never having to have anything to do with it. My mother for example has tendnacy to over react which I hate but I don't send her to the knacker yards when she does it...

The hatred of smokers to me is just another form of political correctness reaching its predestined date with evil over bearing loss of personal freedom and rights. It seems that because the PC brigade has said its ok to hate and bash smokers then everyone has a free for all because lets face it the plastic people of this world don't really get much of chance to vent these days do they

[snuffy]

Hi Bafana,


But you do have a point, it's the hypocracy that is disgusting: taxing and thus make money and say it is based on moral grounds.

Eric

C'mon US federal & local government does that, not just Singapore, probably almost all government do that!
It surfaces as different types of facade too.

[dolby]

Bafana,

I guess that with smoking, it doesn't just affect the smoker, it affects others around them too, and that's why people hate the whole thing.

For me, I know that when I'm around other smokers, I come back smelling of smoke, so have to wash all my clothes immediately, etc.

If a person smokes, their smoke doesn't just stay affecting them - so although a smoker may claim "it's my choice if I smoke, and I accept the physical consequences of that", and that's true, it is their choice, if they smoke in public, they are having an impact on people other than themselves, so it ceases to be an individual choice. That's especially true if being in the presence of cigarette smoke can not only cause smelly clothes, but physical ailments.

And because it is no longer an individual choice, but a wider social group choice, others can choose to say "i don't want to have this cigarette smoke affect my health or my environment". This is in effect what the Singaporean government (and others) have done - they've said "smokers have not proved themselves capable of limiting the impact of their smoke to just themselves, and so we need to regulate them".

I have no problem with the concept of smoker-only bars / clubs, and places where smokers can exercise their choice to smoke. However, the problem was that there have been very few places where a non-smoker could go that were smoke-free environments, and so had to put up with it. Now the regulation has reversed this.

I'm writing this post as someone with friends who smoke, and please believe that I don't think that all smokers are evil or anything, I am just looking at it from a wider social standpoint.

What do you think Bafana / others?

[Bafana]

If a person smokes, their smoke doesn't just stay affecting them - so although a smoker may claim "it's my choice if I smoke, and I accept the physical consequences of that", and that's true, it is their choice, if they smoke in public, they are having an impact on people other than themselves, so it ceases to be an individual choice. That's especially true if being in the presence of cigarette smoke can not only cause smelly clothes, but physical ailments.

And because it is no longer an individual choice, but a wider social group choice, others can choose to say "i don't want to have this cigarette smoke affect my health or my environment". This is in effect what the Singaporean government (and others) have done - they've said "smokers have not proved themselves capable of limiting the impact of their smoke to just themselves, and so we need to regulate them".

Every hungry ghost festival my apartment and streets fills up with ash, half burnt furit, candles and soot from Chinese people burning offerings to ghost and the gods.

Everytime I go to a hawker centre that has a pigs organ stall I want to puke from the smell.

Are these socialy acceptable reasons for banning Chinese from lighting fires outside or cooking in public areas.

I see your point but as a person that knows something about air quality smoking outside in a well aired area will not taint your clothes or affect any innocent bystanders. Even in a Kopi Tium or Hawker centre unless you are within 3-5 meters you would'nt even notice except for the fact that you are looking and are sensntive to the fact.

The issue of smoking in bars and nightclubs being banned has not taken place and the Singapore government did a nice slight of hand to placate the PC's in their ranks by saying they will have to discuss it with local business groups. Because they know that the majority of drinkers are smokers or have smoking friends. And smokers don't like drinking without smoking so if they actually banned it then the revenue from the also ludicrous alchohol taxes in Singapore would be lost along with increased tax revenue from half drunken over smokers. They must balance between being seen to be sensitive to special interest groups (thats all facist non-smokers are BTW) and making money which is what they are all about.

BTW is "having smoking friends" the same as having "gay friends". Have smokers become so much the villian we must be spoken about in terms of I can criticse them or be an expert about them as I have "friends".

Maybe the gay smokers in forum might like to add...

BTW I like gays - Some of my best friends are gay.

[seraphim]

I'm with bafana.

I'm a smoker too, and its obvious that governments approach to smokers has little to do with air pollution, and much more to do with the game of 'how high can we tax them?'. If they were so concerned about pollution standards, why don't they regulate the areas where 'hell money' can be burnt during the 7th month period? Why not ask people to burn their offerings in their own homes and stop subjecting the rest of the country to a month of choking on the fumes produced? Isn't that the same as stating that smokers should only be allowed to smoke in the privacy of their own abodes, where they can't affect other non smokers? Why not just put a little plexiglas dome over the entire island to prevent smoke from forest fires in Sumatra too, if you're so 'concerned' about the nations health??

Please don't get me wrong, I'm sensitive to non smokers around me too, and I know someone will pick up to defend the whole cultural angle on Hungry Ghost month. But from a logical viewpoint, it looks to me like its all revenue driven.