Riding the bus is interesting. I can totally zap out and dwell on things for 40 minutes and not have to discuss or chat about it with anyone. Here are my thoughts from yesterday morning's bus ride. Please forgive me if I use words that are incorrect for the blasting of thoughts that I was going through.
Money/Privilege/Trends
The cigarette tax went up. Like a dollar a pack. Yes, I know I should quit, etc etc etc (I HAVE gotten much better). But that's not my point. I was thinking about trends and coolness and money. How the Haves influence the Have Nots. How moncy changes everything. In college we talked about Peter Paul Rubens and his portrayal of (in today's standards) "larger" women. The professor touched on the fact that since only the rich could afford to eat well, being "larger" for both men AND women was a sign of wealth. Then there was the trend of pale skin. Peasants working the field were subjected to the sun - the rich could afford to avoid the sun, therefore light skin was something to attain. This went totally the other way in the 1970's/80's. Only the rich could afford to laze around in the sun all day while us drones were stuck in dank cubicles. Then the invention of tanning beds/booths/spray on tans evened the playing field. The wealthy sect of the Chinese could grow long nails, showing their riches because manual labor would break nails. And so on...
Is this moving on to cigarettes in our era? For years, it was only the poor smoked, due to cheap tobacco prices and addiction. They couldn't afford to see doctors to work on quitting. Nicorette and other options to quit are just as expensive as the habit. Now that prices have gone up to (in Minneapolis) around $7 a pack, can only the rich afford to smoke and make it trendy? They can afford the cost of the habit AND afford medical care when it destroys their bodies.
Something else I was thinking about was the social aspect. Smokers congregate. Through my bad bad habit, I have made friends at my new job spending that 10 minutes that it takes to suck down a smoke meeting people I probably wouldn't in my office. You can't smoke in silence, it's a total social meet/greet thing. You share a common habit, and from there friendship grows.
Maybe a 40 minute bus ride is too long for me...
2 comments:
I had an odd theory pop into my head, and I hope to hell I'm wrong.
I think the excessive sin taxes on tobacco products might cause people to say "screw it" and switch to marijuana instead. Because, if you keep stacking federal, state, and city taxes on tobacco...gee, really, all that has to be done is lowering the street-level price on pot, and thereyago.
Wait, what's the price of cigarettes in Chicago gonna be? I know my neighbor D. told me they're adding yet ANOTHER city tax, it's really getting ludicrous (and I don't smoke at all.).
OK, according to this article, the tax could increase the price by $1.00, making ciggy-butts $8 a pack. Holy CRAP.
What's to keep people from growing tobacco in their own homes and rolling their own? Maybe people will home-cure tobacco. I wonder if you could actually do that? Tobacco's pretty hardy...it's a plant native to America...hrm.
Maybe there will be smoke-easys, kind of like speakeasys in the 30's...that'd actually be kinda cool.
Oh, WOW! There ARE pissed-off Americans growing and curing their own!
http://www.rusticgirls.com/gardening/growing-tobacco.html
http://www.howtogrowtobacco.com/
I have a feeling Minnesota is not the best tobacco-growing state, tho. Tobacco hates cold.
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