This is about why I quit smoking cigarettes and why it is a warning to most of you.

I quit on either Sunday or Monday last, and it seems so long ago I cannot remember exactly when I lit my last Camel filter. I do remember that I only took four puffs from it and stamped it out.

I quit because it was time, and because a pack suddenly cost about six bucks. That would total $43 a week for a pack-a-day habit.

I can't afford that.

The tax on tobacco products is called an excise tax. Excise taxes are special taxes placed on products or services. They are easier to pass than income taxes or property taxes. That's why they pass them.

Excise taxes are aimed at middle and lower income groups. Most tobacco, alcohol and other "sin" products are used or consumed by middle and lower income groups.

So it is the middle and lower income groups who bear the burden of these sudden taxes. You never hear of excise taxes on yachts, executive airplanes, second and third vacation homes or Ferraris.

The reason it is so easy to stick it to the middle and lower income groups is because they don't have the money or the power to lobby Congress against the excise tax increases.

Now here is my take on what is next:

First, many people are quitting cigarettes. The smugglers will do very well with this, especially the cigar trade, but you can forget the tobacco industry. It will vanish in about ten years. Butt Hutt is already closing up some of their shops.

You may say, "All right! It is good for the public health."

That's true, but so are free condoms, birth control for teenagers and bans on internal combustion engines. But how far do you think that will go?

The fact is that excise taxes are not passed to eliminate trade sectors such as tobacco. They are passed to raise revenue for governments who are running serious deficits - and they are easy to get signed into law.

My take says that with the fading away of the 'legal' tobacco industry and its formerly steady tax revenue, the governments will look next at the other big 'sin' to tax.

Alcohol.

Watch. In a few years, if not sooner, there will be large increases in the excise taxes on beer, spirits and wine.

It will be easy for them to pass. It will be a huge increase, too.

Whether you drink or not, this trend should upset you.

What comes after that? Excise taxes on chocolate? Tennis shoes? Pet food? Cosmetics? Sports equipment? Internet usage? Soda? Junk food?

It will be easy for them to pass. That's because we look at what is happening with tobacco and say, "It's OK. I don't smoke. He does, so it won't bother me."

"Divide and conquer." That was a quote from Genghis Khan, or Adolf Hitler, or someone who knew how to manipulate suckers like us.