money/mouth

Although it's only been just over a week since I peeled off the nicotine patch, and probably only 3 weeks since I had a cigarette, I'm going to vote for Proposition 86 tomorrow, a $2.60 per pack tax on smokes. Which will only bring CA cigarettes closer to NY and UK prices. And pay for shit. I always said I was funding the NHS by smoking and leaving - this way, if I start smoking again, at least I can pay for something in CA as well. And force the rest of the smokers, frequently an economically challenged demographic, to pay higher prices for their chemically addictive addiction, to pay for, in turn, health programs, emergency services, but without enacting any change in the fucked up health insurance system in this silly country that has people paying exorbitant fees for even basic medical care. I saw a doctor in August. Some letters saying "this is not a bill" totaling eight or nine hundred bucks drifted into my mailbox in Sept and Oct. No one has actually asked for money, but how much do you think it cost everybody to send me 2 copies of the "this is not a bill" bill? Stupid system. I've spent hours reading info in the voters' guide, the actual text of the frigging laws, and online info (who the hell actually researches non-competitive judicial positions? There are some snakes in that there grass, I tell you). A few more propositions to go. Sigh. Being an educated voter is a chore. Little wonder people don't vote, or vote blind. This country, this culture, scares me: we say work hard, you'll succeed on the one hand, but no one really wants to work....