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In reply to the discussion: Philly Soda Tax Would Punish the Poor | Bernie Sanders [View all]Major Nikon
(36,843 posts)The reduction in smoking wasn't solely based on consumption tax. Things like aggressively enforcing underage purchasing, stopping marketing to children, and severely limiting the places where people can smoke had a far larger effect. So crediting higher cigarette taxes for all (or perhaps even some) of the reductions in smoking and the improvements in public health is pretty hard to support.
Another problem is that there's pretty much no other practical alternatives to cigarettes. People who smoke generally don't migrate to other forms of nicotine delivery devices. Sodas are also widely available in bulk and there's plenty of other sugar delivery devices people are already consuming. So there's no reason to believe even if someone is deterred by a 25 cent increase on a bottle of soda out of a machine that already costs $1.50-2, they wouldn't just buy a 2 liter bottle of store brand soda that currently goes for around 50-75 cents. Or they could just buy a bottle of filtered juice that has almost the same (or more) sugar content.