Depressing
Entirely predictable too sadly. Im sure theyâre awash with tobacco lobby money.
All that law would have done was create a black market.
The only thing prohibition achieved was to give the Mafia the means to make the money to build Las Vegas.
Have a look at what is happening here now. Taxation has made smoking prohibitively expensive so we have a massive illegal market run by organised crime which has resulted in the Government taking in less revenue from the sale of tobacco.
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The proposed new constitution in Chile has been rejected, NO is going to win, although by less a margin than many expected.
Pretty depressing to think that people are voting to retain a constitution created during a dictatorship as the âless bad optionâ of the two.
The new constitution was significantly worse though wasnât it? It had some massive limitations. From what I understand, the first constitution was extremely left leaning and the second was extremely right leaning, which caused enough division to not allow either to pass. As well as both new constitutions being extremely detailed and long.
Venezuela and Guyana met a few days ago and agreed to not use military force to decide on the territorial disputes. Not sure how that works at all? Venezuela has already said to their contractors etc to just go straight in and set up show, not sure how youâre meant to respond to that, maybe a politely worded letter?
Absolutely it was worse.
The constitution that was proposed and rejected last year was too ambitious and progressive, it would have probably been amazing but people got nervous closer to the vote day and it was rejected.
This new attempt was very much created with the rich, the established, and business in mind. It was sold as a document âuniting the peopleâ but that was a very easily seen through lie.
Ah, but maybe it did âuniteâ the people 
Israel shot 3 of their own hostages after they come out with a white flag to surrender⌠Another IDF sniper has reportedly shot two Christian women while they were in a Church in GazaâŚ
Itâs also resulted in the number of people smoking daily halving from 1991 to 2019âŚ
I meant that the prohibitive cost of tobacco has created a black market from which the Government receives no tax.
Between 1991-2019 the vast majority of smokers bought legal tobacco. As the price steadily increased through the 2010âs that majority started to decline as more illegal tobacco started to enter the market.
Itâs now got to the point where even small regional & rural towns will have a couple of these shops in operation where as it used to only be in the cities or bigger centres.
Last week, year on year, I was down 50% in tobacco sales. While some of that is down to people quitting from which the Government can derive no revenue, the vast majority of it is because theyâre now sourcing illegal tobacco. In the space of 12 months the Government has gone from getting 100% of the tax from the sale of tobacco in this town to now only getting 50% of it.
The general consensus is a fairly big decrease in taxes from the government is due to an increase in people that have never smoked, the mortality of those that have always smoked and also a steady increase in people that are quitting smoking. As of 2019, 63.1% of the population have never smoked. 11% of the population are regular smokers, compared to 25% in 1993, a huge decrease. Some of that will be financial, but the majority will be due to changing lifestyles. This is supported by the statistics as you can observe a steady trend in decreasing numbers, rather than sharp decreases when pricing has increased. (https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/alcohol/alcohol-tobacco-other-drugs-australia/contents/drug-types/tobacco)
The argument that the government is losing taxes through the âblackmarketâ isnât a strong one. In terms of dollar values, itâs estimated that the black market in 2019 was worth $4.9 billion, of which $3.8 billion was lost income for the government.
But by making it more difficult for people to source cigarettes through the black market and the steady decrease in smoking habits over the years, itâs easily justifiable, considering the fact that the tangible costs to the Australian government from smoking is estimated at $19.2 billion and intangible costs are estimated at $118 billion. This cost decreases as the proportion of the population that smokes decreases and those that smoke and refuse to quit die. While in the short term, there may be some government loss, the long-term actually makes significant sense. Not that dissimilar in the government taking a loss on infrastructure spending, but acknowledging that this would help for the future.
I do understand your point of view that your sales are being hit and yes it definitely sucks, but the suggestion would be to move away from the sale of cigarettes and try to focus on something else. Cigarettes are a slowly dying industry in the West
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So far BP, Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd & CMA CGM Group have issued statement that they would suspend shipping through the Suez canal due to ongoing attacks by Houthi rebels. The US ship currently on station is reporting they foiled 30+ attacks with zero confirmed hits. You have to wonder how tenable the Houthi situation is, now that theyâre indiscriminately targeting all civilian ships going through the straights. Wouldnât be surprised if some of the Western countries decide to launch attacks. Stuff like that would be even hitting China very hard financially.
Honestly mate, I couldnât care less if we moved away from tobacco all together, Iâm still hitting budget (issued pre the tobacconist opening) despite losing $10k+ a week in tobacco. I also despise the tobacco industry and their continual targeting of young kids with products that have zero benefits to them or the public.
The problem is that $10k in tobacco is a lot less labour intensive than $10k in alcohol. Itâs an extra pallet to unpack along with more restocking of shelves etc. that requires extra staff which havenât been budgeted for. Thatâs why I still need to sell tobacco.
Much like carpet bombing the Gaza strip to âdestroy Hamasâ might get them out of power, but will only end up fuelling the hatred that they yse to recruit⌠Saudis carpet bombing Yemen to remove the âHouthi rebelsâ has only driven the 35% of the population thatâs Shiite more firmly into the rebel camp.
So long as thereâs a power in Iran willing to give them drones and missiles, theyâll be able to keep up attacks on shipping. Hell, even poor Somali fishers without tech still managed to keep hijacking ships for decades.
Sunak has now joined the ceasefire club, along with Australia, Canada and NZ last week. Even Biden staffers have been calling for it. It means Israel probably wonât be able to push ahead until Hamas is fully âdestroyedâ/ Gaza is fully depopulated.
That hasnât stopped one Israeli real estate company from advertising for dream beach settlements in Gaza⌠they later claimed it was a joke, but they specialise in West Bank settlements, so 
Great account if you want to see how much of a shitfight Israel are, and why they are going so heavy and indiscriminately from the air.
This isnât the equivalent of a Murdoch paper in Israel. This op ed is in a respected âcentristâ flagship. If anyone has any doubts as to the real attitudes amongst Israelis today re Nakba 2.0.
Awful opinion, and Iâm sure thatâs a pretty mainstream view, but thatâs a right wing paper.
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Horrifying. Also horrifying that Biden has gone around Congress to further fuel their ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza.
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