(a tax designed to change behavior)

If it doesn’t affect us directly then we think it doesn’t affect us at all.

The carbon tax, disguised as something called cap and trade, is going to be a sumptuary tax. The tax on health devices, “Cadillac” health insurance plans and fines for not having health insurance in the first place will be sumptuary taxes.

The net result for Direct Marketers is that our customers and prospects will have less money to spend – because a huge chunk of our national disposable income will have been hijacked from the productive part of the economy and shoveled down the insatiable monster maw of government.

That’ll affect us.

A simple example is the recent thugtax on cigarettes in Florida. A few months ago, a carton of cigarettes cost about $25 at the 7-11 down the street. Now the same carton costs $50. The only difference is tax, federal and state.

Of course, smokers should quit. We could pause here and go on and on about the evils of smoking; that’s what the powers that be hope we will do because it would divert attention from the evils of sumptuary taxation.

We all agree smoking is bad and everyone should quit. Now let’s focus.

A pack a day smoker in Florida now pays an additional $1,000 or so a year for cigarettes (pack a day smokers accelerate a bit on weekends). And, of course, nearly all pack a day smokers will pay it. It’s not even a problem; they’ll just cut back on movies, Starbucks, the annual trip to Disney World, going to restaurants.

There are 3,000,000 or so pack a day smokers in Florida, not counting tourists. That means, with occasional smokers, the new tax shifts over $3,000,000,000 (three billion dollars!) from the productive part of the economy to the useless part of the economy. For no gain.

Of course, some smokers have quit …

… buying cigarettes from retail stores in Florida. They have other sources ranging from armed robbers to smugglers, to frequent interstate travelers, to counterfeit cigarettes from Asia, to Indian reservations.

All of which divert more money from the real economy (and generate $0 in taxes for the state).

Because it involves cigarettes, the elected looters will get away with it. Then they’ll pause and attack booze. Then sodas. Then fatty foods. Then the national healthcare scam will kick in followed by the scandalously foolish cap and trade nonsense.

Once people buy what they need, they’ll have little left over to spend on anything else – including what direct marketers offer.

Smokers should pay more for the increased cost of health care? Baloney. Smokers die early. They do not linger on. We probably owe them a refund.

Despite a decades-long all out attack on smoking, last month saw a recent national uptick in the percentage of American adults who smoke, from about 19.8% to 20.1%. In DM terms, that’s three more smokers per thousand.

In other news, the government of Florida recently admitted that it cannot account for or find 18,000 buildings it owns in the state. These are the geniuses who think they’re smart enough to tell us what to do.