Word: tobacco
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...bears this tax burden? Statistically, those least able to afford it. Unlike most, non-sinful commodities, lower-income families tend to consume a larger amount of tobacco than higher-income families. Individuals who earn less than $30,000 a year pay only one percent in the total amount of income taxes, but 47 percent of the total cigarette taxes. And smoking is least prevalent among those with 16 or more years of education, confirming what intuition suggests - that those most likely to indulge in quick-fix, deadly-in-the-long-term behavior are those whose long-term prospects are least...
...These people, mind you, are the same ones who not only keep tobacco farmers farming but keep small convenience stores in business by adding a drink, snack or newspaper to their daily fix. And as the rampant fencing-out of smokers from restaurants, bars, offices and even the front stoops of federal buildings continues apace, smokers are clearly on their way to harming no one but themselves. (Drinkers, especially those who get behind the wheel, are more likely to harm innocents...
...Nobody?s crying for Big Tobacco. The industry has long boasted legendary price elasticity - meaning smokers, when confronted with price increases, simply pay up - and cigarette makers have simply passed the extra costs on to consumers. Talk about a business model - Philip Morris was the best-performing Dow stock of 2000, gaining 90 percent, and reported 8 percent profits in the dismal-for-most second quarter...
...even that elasticity may be wearing thin. Other manufacturers, unencumbered by settlement costs or a $100-million-a-year P.R. budget, are challenging Big Tobacco with dozens of low-cost smokes, and black-market cigarettes (including the ones that major companies give away as marketing ploys) are on the rise. Were it not for the relatively hospitable air in Washington - John Ashcroft?s Justice Department is looking to dump the Clinton suit and George W. Bush declined to add another round of excise taxes - the long-predicted death of Big Tobacco (and the concurrent rise of Little Tobacco) might have...
...that Philip Morris turned Marlboro red when the Czech report came out - with things going rather smoothly in Washington (the $7 million in contributions to the GOP are by far its best-performing investment), it didn?t want to push its luck. Just like it was understandable that Big Tobacco settled with states - taking its future immunity, raising prices and running - instead of challenging whether the states really deserved to reimbursed. And it?s equally understandable that governments, faced with (dubious) evidence that higher per-pack prices reduce youth smoking, would want to punish Big Tobacco for marketing to teens...