09 May 16 12:07, you wrote to Björn Felten:

 >> Over here it's called income equalizing. A very important matter for
 >> us, and one of the many reasons we accept high taxation...

 JK> Some people have said that NYS taxes are high.  We don't find them
 JK> that high.

wages and costs are also higher up there, too... look at the cost of a pack of
cigarettes in NYC... $12US to $15US?? really? that includes an $4+US cigarette
tax and a state sales tax of ~$1.50US?? the following numbers (taken from
http://fairreporters.net/health/prices-of-cigarettes-by-state/ ) are from july
2015...

State            Cost
Alabama         $5.51
Alaska          $9.79
Arizona         $8.05
Arkansas        $6.07
California      $5.89
Colorado        $5.65
Connecticut     $9.52
Delaware        $6.35
Florida         $6.30
Georgia         $6.39
Hawaii          $9.55
Idaho           $5.41
Illinois       $11.50
Indiana         $5.97
Iowa            $6.29
Kansas          $5.83
Kentucky        $5.40
Louisiana       $5.44
Maine           $7.37
Maryland        $7.75
Massachusetts   $9.95
Michigan        $8.00
Minnesota       $8.10
Mississippi     $6.34
Missouri        $5.25
Montana         $6.46
Nebraska        $6.23
Nevada          $6.15
New Hampshire   $6.64
New Jersey      $8.20
New Mexico      $7.67
New York       $12.85
North Carolina  $5.45
North Dakota    $5.33
Ohio            $6.03
Oklahoma        $6.29
Oregon          $5.69
Pennsylvania    $6.85
Rhode Island    $8.95
South Carolina  $5.85
South Dakota    $6.08
Tennessee       $5.30
Texas           $6.69
Utah            $6.89
Vermont         $9.62
Virginia        $5.25
Washington      $9.30
Washington DC   $7.99
West Virginia   $5.43
Wisconsin       $8.82
Wyoming         $5.41
Duty Free       $3.80

at that same time, the average cost of a pack of smokes in australia (based on
a comment at the above site link) was about $29.63US ($40.00AU)...

http://cigarettesprices.strikingly.com/ has average 2013 prices of a pack of
smokes for all countries except australia... pretty revealing... but then one
can also read articles where folks in some of these areas grow their own
tobbacco for their own smokes... in some places, they can do that (grow their
own) but it is illegal to sell those smokes to others...

we wont even look at the cost of milk...

)\/(ark

Always Mount a Scratch Monkey

... Northerners don't have hats that advertise feed stores.
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