e to the tax increase in New Jersey. The state of Massachusetts raised their tax 25 cents a pack in 1992 and reported a 12.5 percent decrease in sales the following year.Certainly a more alarming statistic is not necessarily how much the tax has decreased the sales of cigarettes, although very impressive and healthy, but rather the percent of under aged children and high school students who already smoke and who are beginning to smoke. In a recent study conducted by the University of Michigans Institute for Social Research towards high school seniors found that nearly 24.6 percent were already daily smokers. The same study also revealed that nearly 19 percent of all high school students, 9th - 12th grades, were already daily smokers. This is an alarming statistic because of the influence that adult smokers are imposing on the younger generations. In relation to the economy a tax as significant as the sales tax on cigarettes in New Jersey can only be classified in one category, elasticity. This term economists use to describe the sensitivity within a small variable that was cast into the economy. In this case the tax was just suddenly exposed to the state of New Jersey and in just a one year period the sales of cigarettes dropped 12 percent. Not only did the tax have an effect on Jersey but the surrounding states enjoyed a mild revenue boost from desperate smokers who will do anything to save a little money and maintain their habits. The tax on cigarette sales can be related to many aspects of every day life from tax sales on food and clothes all the way to the rise in the price of gas, which is a necessity to anyone who owns a car and has to transport themselves to and from work everyday. Since I have been alive the price of gas has increased considerably all the way from seventy five cents a gallon to a dollar eighty per gallon. That is more than a 100 percent increase and that becomes very hard to deal with especially when people can ...
