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Bus passes have gone up substantially…
Cigarettes have gone up substantially…
Are any of you government fucks looking out for the people?
—The people
This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.
42 Comments
Ohh it has just begin my friend. The tax happy NDP are now in Power. Where do you think they will get the cash to open more ER’s, hire more nurses and give all the unions a big raise? Bend over…here it comes.
Right, because more ER’s and more nurses would be a bad thing.
They are ‘looking out for people’ by forcing them to spend money on things they know are important rather than on whatever stupid things the public might actually want to spend their money on.
The people in power are the ones who KNOW how to spend other people’s money because everyone always makes sure a person has a firm grasp of economics before they elect them.
Miles- of course they are not a bad thing. But we cannot be all things to all people. There is only so much cash to go around. I would love to see more Er’s open and more nurses hired. But I think you would agree that we are taxed enough. Where would teh money for this come from? Hint..check your wallet.
Dogma, “‘looking out for people’ by forcing them to spend money on things they know are important rather than on whatever stupid things the public might actually want to spend their money on”
Elected officials spend PUBLIC money/resources. In fact, that’s their entire job to do just that. When that same government tells YOU how to spend YOUR money… what’s that? The Daddy we all wanted but never had growing up?
Ever notice it’s the poor and middle income earners who gripe about increases?
Why should the well-off care if my recreation budget (the reason I work) just got reduced to $10/wk? What’s a nickle to them? What’s $20? grrr
The only thing the goverment is looking out for is your pay check
Smoking while waiting for the bus? Is that what “the people” are up to these days?
Bobby33…I’m a memeber of a union & no ones told us anything about an upcoming BIG RAISE !
THese types of things are announced at union meetings ahead of time & there’s not been any word of this at any meeting i’ve been to this year .
I guess it won’t be until 2010… even though gas, food, bus passes ,smokes well everything is increasing in price NOW ! ! !
Why can’t the BIG RAISES come BEFORE THE PRICES GO UP !!!
More ERs are not a bad thing, nor are they necessarily a good thing. Tiny small-town ERs are dreadfully underutilized because there are very few true emergencies coming through them. They waste a lot of money. They should NOT be closed, but they should be converted to a different, more helpful kind of clinic with considerably less expensive staffing. I fear the NDP will not get this at all, but you never know.
I wonder if we had a more attractive package for family doctors that there wouldn’t be more available? I figure, if we could all find a family doctor there would be a lot fewer trips to the ER for stupid things.
Quit smoking and you’ll be able to afford a bus-pass… you might even be able to afford a car and gasoline too!!
On the right track for sure kay. A more attractive package that compensates them as well for non-clinical duties that take up so much of their time, as well as for working in practices that also houses other kinds of health professional, etc. to provide more care to the whole patient and keep them healthy instead of just treating one little complaint at a time…
Smokes should be $20 a pack and smokers should think of it as a payment plan for their eventual cancer treatment or heart surgery.
Buck & Jai…. Oh SNAP!!!
In Truro a local Native band ‘won’ the provincial legislative right to continue to smoke in a particular bar…
‘I guess Chief Paul does not appreciate that his victory is a Pyrrhic one: encouraging smoking locations is reckless and lacks insight to the health of future Native generations.’
http://www.trurodaily.com/index.cfm?sid=97…
YIKES I press send prematurely….my point was….. smoking is bad for you…govt looked out for this issue by respecting native legislation, for once…..they LOOKED OUT FOR THE NATIVE PEOPLE but….is it really looking out……. sneaky I say……
Sure you can have permission to inhale over 400 poisons….we don’t mind…..fill your lungs and your kids lungs…..dang ..we do not care…..it is mind over matter—> govt do not mind that natives now and in the future do not matter…. ( not my opinion-being facetious)
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
McGayle – the province has no say in or on Aboriginal land.
Millbrook didn’t win anything. Their jurisdiction exempts the band from most and/or any provincial legislations.
I smoke and have for over 34 years, I think that I have paid enough taxes through buying them to pay for my health care and for the cost of my funeral. Just because some people smoke… does not make them bad people…. the way you go on… you would think we were the scum of the earth. Cancer can be caused by alot of things just not smoking. I can remember when they tried to say that eating potatoes would give you cancer. They seem to think that everything out there nowadays will give you cancer. And it can also be hereditary.
I wish you would lay off the smokers and look around you. The world is going to hell in a hand basket as they say and its not the smokers doing it, so stop acting like its our fault.
If your going to tax products punitively because of health risks, you can’t tax tobacco and not fatty foods.
Oh I know….my post is speaking to the comments about govt looking after people and govt tried to say something but legally could not and that was reinforced..the matter was billed as a ‘win’..my point is they won nothing…. we agree…I am speaking from a health no win as well.
Must give credit where credit is due… the public wants to be safe from the effects of second-hand smoke. Fine. No smoking in the workplace suits me and my new-to-the-workforce kids just fine. But what mcgayle brings up here is an interesting point that actually backs my own position very well. Native Indians have chartered rights to freedom as well as rights to govern on their own lands. Imposing the “white man’s law” on them even though it’s logically sound advice is perceived as an infringement on their personal freedom. Much like my inability to afford the new government imposed tax on cigarettes. It’s an infringement on personal freedom when I have to accommodate the government with my pocketbook to practice said freedom… maybe it’s not infringement until I sacrifice lunch to afford smokes? This is “helping” my ribs and hips bones protrude. Thanks for that! Mmmhmm
Buy a car, quit smoking, and then you’ll see people are listening. Vroom vroom…no one like someone who smells like smokes.
I just read in the paper that child abuse causes cancer.
Jammie, the point of my comment wasn’t to support more ER’s or Nurses per se, but to point out that increased taxes can mean increased services and benefits to society.
Actually, if the governments would just act on the number of studies and reports already prepared about how to solve the health care issues, it wouldn’t cost tax payers very much more money. The issues generally surround efficiency rather than a lack of resources. The family doctor shortage could be solved relatively cheaply too.
Oh frig off with the cig. argument that the gov’t not looking out for the people. Like fuck the hell off. It’s your own fault you’re hooked on the smokes, and shit, the gov’t putting the price up puts more money into things like healthcare so those of us who don’t suck on cancer sticks MAY not have to wait as long for care because all you smokers are clogging up the system. sorry, don’t feel sorry for the smokers out there. Never have, never will.
Regarding bus fare increases: HRM can go eat a big dick on that one. I realize fares in HRM are pretty reasonable compared with other municipalities in Canada, but still. $70 for a student pass/month? Fuck. you. HRM.
I see taxing smokers good, taxing or raising the price of anything else bad. Well fuck ’em all. The bootleggers will make millions and the gov’t will lose millions. It is definitely not sound management on any level. Anyone remember Prohibition?
5 cents is substantial? My God, the horror.
SD, it’s 5 cents per cigarette, not pack. If it was a pack, there wouldn’t be a complaint. It’s a $1.25 a pack.
Increasing the price of cigarettes is looking out for the people! Quit smoking if its so expensive. Its NASTY. Why don’t you try Champix its only 250 dollars for 3 months.
I have an idea.. quit smoking its NASTY. The government is looking out for the people by increasing the price of cigarettes. Why don’t you give Champix a go since its only 250 dollars for 3 months maybe you can start saving money that way
Why don’t you mind your own business and go fuck yourself. Smoking is LEGAL. I did quit for 8 yeaars now I’m doing it to piss people off. But enjoy your high bus pass while I get to where I want to go when I want to. It’s not about affordability, or health or anything else, it’s about cash grabs.
I’d like to be alive in thirty years to see what this province looks like. With our aging population, unhealthy lifestyles etc. all the little communities will be like the outports in NFLD and just wither and die. Halifax will have a lot of the necessities, but small town NS is pretty much frigged.
I can’t imagine too many doctors being delighted to practice in Meat Cove or some other charming backwater.
just so y’alls know: zyban (or wellbutrin — same drug) is like what? 50 bucks a month?
that’s less than most smokers who smoke a pack a day will spend in a week!
I suppose an addiction is an addiction, but smoking is just NASTY…I really don’t get that one.
im broke as is 🙁
and with the raised cost of living, smoking and transpiration i dont know what im going to do i already work 2 jobs 🙁
Bus passes – claim on taxes. Cigarettes – a necessity? Give me an f’ing break.
yes i can get my $30 bucks for the $720 i have spent on them one time a year
SCORE!!!!!!!!
I’d like to issue a blanketing FUCK OFF to the kitty and others that think my smoking costs you anything at all. I haven’t seen a doctor in YEARS. I’ve NEVER been treated nor have succumbed to smoking related illness and neither did my 90 year old smoking grandfather so fuck you all if you think I should subsidize YOUR health care.
How would you feel if the government said masturbation is now a taxable act at $1.25/pop. You’d say WTF? WHY should the government profit after my hard earned orgasm? You bitches would tell those who can’t afford to cum not to. Fuck you! Me smoking cigarettes should have as much impact on my neighbor as masturbation does so fuck off with your bullshit reasons for specialized taxation.
smoke pot the government bastards can’t raise the price of that. they raise the price of smokes and all you non smokers think we shouldn’t complain….fuck you. people have been smoking longer than you’ve been complaining. if you’re addicted to smokes than it is a necessity.
kay is a commie.
Kitty :The government is looking out for the people by increasing the price of cigarettes.
The goverment isn’t looking out for the people, their trying to get more money
Actually the government ISN’T looking out for the people by raising cig prices if you look at it in strictly economical terms. If this encourages more people to stop smoking, more people will live longer and thus there will be more people using the health care system.
It’s like with prevention programs….it’s just going to make more people live longer and in the end that’ll put more strain on our health care system. The best way to fix healthcare is to let people die off. Sounds cold and heartless, but….less people using the system means more spaces for those who are still alive and need care.
Also, if the government was looking out for the people they’d start covering zyban under the family pharmacare program. I have a friend on wellbutrin (zyban and wellbutrin are the same drug — bupropion) who had to get special permission to be on it to make sure she was on it for depression and not for smoking cessation. Her doc’s office made her pay $45 to sign the exemption form. Sounds kinda dumb to me.