12/14/20 Smoking Seems Like A Bargain?

     Let me start by being clear, I don't smoke, never have, never will.  I was caught by surprise though at Buc-ee's this past Friday as we were driving back home.  I noticed they were selling their Marlboros for like $5 and change a pack.  I was sure Wife and I had discussed this awhile back and we saw that packs of cigarettes were around $7.50.  I even had to ask the lady working the register if those were the normal prices or if they were on sale somehow.  She said those are some of the cheapest prices she has seen for cigarettes.  I simply made the little joke of "hmm, maybe I could afford to pick up the bad habit now."  She laughed and Wife said "gross" and pushed me away from the counter.

    But who really benefits from the cheap cost?  Isn't it in the smokers best interest if the cost keeps going up to curtail their sales?  Take a 20 year old idiot who might want to pick up the nasty habit and sees the pack for $5.  He might justify buying a pack here and there versus the same idiot seeing the pack for $7.50.  I think it becomes something you really have to think about, that starts to become a chunk of change.  My dad was smoking two packs a day, and that means he was pissing away about $15 a day in smoke.  Taking that to its conclusion, that is up to $465 a month on something that has nothing to show for itself.  At least a fatty like myself that is addicted to food can call the food a meal, cigarettes don't have that luxury.

   Another thing that pisses me off is a lot, maybe most of the homeless people we see "begging" for money stand there day in and day out with a cigarette in their mouth, I mean if they smoke all day, they are going through at least two packs a day, that starts looking like almost rent money, if they did it right.  The one that pissed me off the most was an old man who somehow got a big living room chair complete with ottoman and he just sat there sprawled out smoking and I guess people gave him money.  This lasted about a month or two, but his chair has since been removed.  It just seemed like a road hazard, it was almost the same width as the island he hung out at there with cars flying by in both directions day and night.  He just sat there like he was watching CNN (you know, the channel for dummies) with a cigarette in one hand and the other out to catch the money given him by all these big hearted liberals.