Take up smoking! And help children!

Yes, you read the title right.  Recently the US federal government raised the tax on cigarettes by $0.62.  The proceeds would go to funding childrens health care...so improving the health of one by harming the other? Read more here.There could be a lot of aruguments back and forth on why this is good or bad..but my question is - arent we betting those kid's health against someone's poor decision?

This tactic of tapping taxes from consumption of goods that breed "moral low ground" has been around for ages. It has been lovingly called the "sin tax". Link to history of it here. 

So is it ok to sin as long as you pay a tax on it? (pun intended). Plus, who has the moral authority to call out sins of various human beings?  Since smoking has been demonized (for all the right reasons) in modern society, it is easy to get away by raising taxes on some tobacco rolled up in a paper with a filter attached to it. The same may not apply to other "sins" that are not as infamous. It has been proven that sin taxes do work. Take a look at the "Economics of Sin Taxes". Under the guise of "encouraging those bad people to give up their bad habits", we as a society stand to gain from it's proceeds, which can then be applied to the betterment of all - especially the "good" people.

To apply an analogy, we are like the employees of a store that sits across the local whorehouse - 

as long as we dont visit the prostitutes and the prostitutes keep having customers, we ccan keep our morality and eat it too.

P.S - In interest of full disclosure, let me mention for the record that I am not a smoker and that I have never taken up smoking as a habit in my life. So if you were thinking - "he must be smoker; hence the anger" - ha!

The merryman cometh

Happiness has the mind of a maverick. Sometimes it plays hard to get, sometimes it plays hide and seek, and sometimes it is elusive. But when we find it, we try to hold on to it so tight that it escapes at the slightest chance it gets.

Rather than holding tight on to it, I usually just say hi and hello and keep a small distance so as not to break any private space that it deserves. Consider it as a motive to keep it a arms length to be called upon anytime. I don't give it a shape either (like if I do this, I will be happy), I just recognize it when I see it. I classify my happiness as the merryman, who meets me at various nooks and corners of my life and always leaves me wanting for more.

Some people like their merryman to be a short distance runner - achieving great happiness that has a short running time. This is usually not recommended as the means are often harmaful or borderline criminal. (Smoking weed, running ponzi schemes or indulging in blind ideology). Others like their merryman to be a marathon runner, slowly but surely gathering pace and lasting for a long period of time. (Hardwork, corporate ladder climbing, building up a profitable business). The merryman usually has long term relationships with them as well, but they usually don't make it into the celebrity list or the most famous person's list.

I try to meet happiness everyday - it may be in the slightest of event like a happy child or in a large dose like spending quality time with the ones you love most. At the end of the day if I think I have not achieved anything - I think - this is now, I am here and I am ready to take on another new day of my life! Ah, there it is - the happiness in sheer optimism! The merryman does take holidays though - during times when loved ones are lost and during times when serious health issues surface. I imagine him to be like a postman - drops in everyday (except on holidays as I mentioned before), drops envelopes big and small, and leaves me to figure out the value of each piece of mail my life has to offer.

So build yourself a merryman and try to meet him everyday. He has unpredictable timing, so keep on the lookout and if you think you have not met him today, think again - you might have missed him in the crowd of your other emotions - its just that he did not wear the bright red uniform today that usually gets him noticed.

When did I meet my merryman today, you ask? Just about a few minutes back when I was almost done with this post that I have been thinking of posting for couple of days now. How does he look? Well, I say he dresses up differently for everyone, so I am not going to spoil the surprise for you! You will have to see for yourself.

Procrastination: Cause and Effect

Friday, 7:30 pm - "Oh I have to stick the new registration tags on the motorcycle - will do it on the weekend"

Saturday 5:30 pm - "Hmm, I have to stick the registration tag, but I am late for my volleyball
game, maybe tomorrow"

Sunday 11:30 pm - "Oh forgot about the sticker again, too late now, will do it tomorrow"

Tuesday 9:15 am - "Oh Sh*#! Where is my motorcycle? Was it stolen? Or did somebody tow it? Better call the apartment office"

Well, turns out the apartment security had placed a notice under the license plate of my motorcycle about the expired registration tag. A week later, since no one had called, they had it towed. I tried to show my angry face at the apartment manager - but she showed a photo of the notice stuck to my motorcycle (I hate those smart phones!), so I had to back away from shifting the guilt (or the responsibility) onto someone else's shoulder. I called the towing company - their response justified every inch of prejudice I had about them - they are the best legally run mafia operation in these United States of America. Well, if you are wondering about the other ones, I will name a few - U-Haul, Parking Enforcement and the IRS. Getting back to topic, after the technical terms mambo jumbo, I deduced that if I got the motorcycle out of their storage facility (which is even worse than the footage of Iraq I have seen on TV) by the next evening, I need to pay only (emphasis on the only) a total of $260.

Now, I know on the list of bad effects caused by procrastination, loss of wealth comes only after loss of health and loss of family relations. But in the absence of the other two, I felt emotionally burdened by this impending financial loss. In the current economical climate, this is the last thing I could afford. After doing some quick calculations in my head, I figured out the other costs I could cut to make up for this towing company's moment of nirvana.

Slowly, the other repercussions dawned on me. How do I break this to my wife? How do I blame politicians for procrastinating the fixing of a health care crisis and economical crisis? Closer to home, how do I reason with my son for not cleaning up his toys because he had other things to do? Some wise man said - "Change the man in the mirror first before asking the world to change". Now, I am sure he was just postponing his occasional social visit, but he does have a point. Then again, another wise man said - "Hard work pays over time, but laziness pays now". I will leave it to you to figure out who was the wiser one. Or you can do it later.

A battery jump start from AAA and a ride from my wife later, I was lighter on accounts of my bank balance and self righteousness. In the near future, I may think twice before blaming my son, wife, colleagues and policymakers when they say - "I will do it, but now is not the time".

Since this experience has become an edifice of my procrastination aftereffect, you may think I have become better in getting stuff done by now. But consider this - I have been putting this post up for a week now. Thankfully, blogger.com does not tow unclaimed draft posts!