How Much Money Do Cigarette Companies Make Per Year?
“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” —1st Corinthians 3:17
TOO MUCH! According to TobaccoAtlas.org (PDF files), the top six tobacco producing companies in the world made $346,200,000,000 in the year 2008. That's just for one year!!!
"In recent years, publicly traded tobacco companies have consolidated through privatization and mergers. Today there are five major private tobacco companies: Philip Morris International, Altria/Philip Morris USA, Japan Tobacco International, British American Tobacco, and Imperial Tobacco. In addition to these corporations, there are sixteen state-owned tobacco companies that are the leading cigarette manufacturers in specific countries.
China National Tobacco Corporation is the larges t state-owned tobacco company, producing more cigarettes than any other company in the world. In 2008 CNTC manufactured 2.1 trillion of the 5.9 trillion cigarettes produced worldwide." [spelling typos edited]
Isn't that sad? Tobacco companies combined manufacture 5.9 trillion cigarettes. There are 6.7 billion people living upon the earth today. That equates to roughly 1,000 cigarettes for every living man, woman and child on this planet PER YEAR!!! By God's grace I've never smoked a cigarette in my life. I've never drank a drop of alcohol in my life. AND I DON'T PLAN TO START NOW!!! I had to go look on the internet to learn how many cigarettes come in one pack. There are 20. That equates to 50 PACKS OF CIGARETTES FOR EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD LIVING UPON THE EARTH PER YEAR!!! That's tragic! Can you imagine? Tobacco companies produce enough cigarettes to supply 50 packs for every human being annually. Obviously, there's a lot of people who smoke several packs a week. Cigarette smoking is a menace to society.
Only Heaven knows the total amount of damage and misery caused by cigarette smoking. How many families have ended up homeless because of a family member falling asleep while smoking, burning the house to the ground? Cigarettes are dangerous because people become so used to smoking that they become reckless and irresponsible. I knew a family whose house burned to the ground on Christmas Eve because the uncle fell asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand. I smelled the burned ash from the wood. I saw the smoldering remains of a home once lived in, now waiting for bulldozers to come haul it all away. Cigarettes are for fools!
Americans are seriously addicted to cigarette smoking, and so are many other nations. Hollywood glorifies all manner of sins, including smoking. Anything that deliberately harms the body is sinful. God lives within each Christian. It's important that we be good stewards of everything which God has entrusted to us, and that includes our bodies and everything that we own. Depression is synonymous with smoking, because the nicotine quickly soothes the brain from tension and stress. In the short term cigarettes please the senses, but in the long-term they destroy one's life and health completely. Many people have died prematurely, suffering horrible slow deaths because of smoking.
Only God knows how many families have been left homeless because of cigarette smoking. Only God knows how many children have been burned with cigarettes by irresponsible adults. Only God knows how many forest fires and other tragedies have been caused by cancer sticks!!!
As a child I remember the brick house next to us catching fire in one of the apartments, burning up completely because the tenant fell asleep while smoking. It's like carrying a lit torch everywhere you go. In fact, listen to how sneaky and conniving the cigarette companies are:
“Although cigarettes seem like nothing more than tobacco wrapped in paper, they are in fact carefully engineered to look, taste, smell and burn a certain way—and to go on burning when not being puffed. This spares smokers the trouble of lighting up again, and pays off in higher sales from cigarettes burning out in ashtrays. But it also means that a cigarette rolling off the lip of an ashtray onto a mattress, or into the crack of a sofa, can smolder undetected for 30 to 40 minutes before bursting into flames.”
SOURCE: FIRE INVESTIGATION—CIGARETTES: HOW OFTEN THEY CAUSE FIRES? (PDF file)
Take a look at how many fire-related fatal residential fires are caused by cigarette smoking... 56%!!!
ABOVE: The National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) compiled a chart
of residential fires resulting in one or more fatalities
FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of all fatal fires in housing are caused by smoking cigarettes!!! The tobacco companies never warn people on TV about the dangers of cigarettes. They won't spend money to warn people. If they do it's chump-change compared to the billions (yes, billions with a big B) in profits that they make.
Dividing The Spoils Amongst The Proud
Proverbs 16:19, “Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
In the 1990's the tobacco companies were sued by the states for all the nursing-related costs associated with caring for victims of cigarette smoking. The Supreme Court ruled against the tobacco companies and it cost them $250,000,000,000 paid out over 25 years! That's a 10 billion state penalty per year! The industry makes $350,000,000,000 a year! So that's like 2.5 % of what the industry rakes in each year!!! There's no justice, the states just want in on the loot. Proverbs 16:19 calls it dividing the spoils with the proud. Anyone who places money over justice is disregarding God and holiness, which is sinful pride. The entire cigarette industry is immoral and ungodly.
In Adolescents, Addiction to Tobacco Comes Easy (teen addiction is becoming epidemic!)
Cigarettes should be outlawed as a Madison Avenue product. It's a free county. If you want to smoke, go ahead and knock yourself out! However, cigarettes ought not be marketed and pushed on the public as they are. Tobacco companies spend tens-of-millions of dollars advertising on billboards and anywhere they can peddle their death sticks. Children are targeted by gimmicks such as Joe Camel (which is sexually suggestive might I ad).
It is tragic that over 43,000,000 Americans presently smoke cancer sticks (cigarettes). Ironically, one of the reasons for the drastic increase is the faltering economy. Sadly, many teenagers are staring to smoke, much more than before. The wickedness in America is spreading like cancer, literally. Medical costs due to cigarettes now exceeds one hundred BILLION dollar a year!!! ...
How Many People in America Smoke Cigarettes?
Cigarette smoking in America is a huge problem due to the addicting nature of the habit. The amount of people who smoke seems to be on the rise as the economy has worsened, most likely due to the stressful situations this has put thousands of Americans in. It also appears that the amounts of teens that begin smoking are on the rise due to growing up in homes where their parents have smoked their whole lives.
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and serious illness among Americans. Roughly 400,000 + Americans die from tobacco related illness and accounts for one fifth of all deaths in the US. Tobacco also costs our nation more than $100,000,000,000 each year in medical expenses and lost productivity in the workplace.
It is estimated that there are more than 43 million adults who currently smoke in the United States, Including our president, Barack Obama. Of that 43 million 53% are men and 47% are women. That is really quite astounding even with all of the knowledge know as to the harm that cigarettes can cause. These statistics just go to show how powerful of a hold it has over people.
It’s not too late to quit smoking, even if you’ve been doing it for twenty years. Stopping now can drastically reduce your chances for developing serious health complications. There are proven methods and products available to help so that you don’t have to do it cold turkey anymore. Don’t continue to make yourself a statistic any longer. Do it for yourself or your loved ones!
In the Federated States Of Micronesia, on the small island of Palau, they are trying to ban tobacco because so many of their 12-13 year olds are already addicted to cigarette smoking and will all die of lung cancer in their thirties or forties. Tobacco usage is epidemic in many cultures. Booze (alcohol), cigarettes, casino gambling, prostitution, illegal-drugs... they have a destructive influence wherever they are found. It's not just Sin City Las Vegas anymore. Our entire nation is becoming one giant Sodom and Gomorrah!!!
It makes me angry that the greedy corporations that profit from pushing nicotine addiction on the public are not held accountable nor responsible. It's a travesty of justice that the government which is supposed to protect its citizens, instead shares the blood money with the tobacco cartel...
"The National Conference of State Legislatures reported last month that states were facing combined budget deficits of more than $40 billion in 2009. Raising cigarette taxes is one way some states are trying to make up the shortfall. In 2007, states collected more than $19 billion in cigarette taxes, and Maryland, which doubled its tax to $2 in January was one of 10 states that voted last year to increase those collections. More states are considering cigarette tax increases this year.
The federal government, meantime, collects nearly $7 billion annually in cigarette excise taxes and would have raised those taxes, effective this year, but for the presidential veto of the S-chip legislation, which House Democrats have said is near the top of their agenda for next year.
Omar Little’s hometown, Baltimore, does not collect city taxes on cigarettes, but some municipalities do, for a total of up to $600 million a year. (The combined taxes of New York State and New York City are the highest in the country at $4.25 a pack — $1.50 for the city and $2.75 for the state, including a $1.25 state tax increase that took effect June 3.)
But taxes are not the only government revenue from cigarettes. Settlements in the late 1990s to end state lawsuits against tobacco companies mean that the cigarette industry is paying states nearly $250 billion over 25 years. Under the agreement, those payments to states will continue flowing even beyond 25 years as long as the tobacco industry is healthy. But the payments would phase out as cigarette company profits decline and would ultimately disappear if people stop smoking."SOURCE: Government Gets Hooked on Tobacco Tax Billions - NYTimes.com
Smoking may not send you to Hell, but it'll make you smell like you've been there!
With all the hundreds-of-millions of people starving from lack of food and nutrition; and with all the poor people lacking fresh, clean water to drink and cook; it is a crime against humanity that the rest of the wealthy world purchases enough cigarettes annually to feed the world, cloth the world and house the world. Again, since I don't smoke I had to go research the cost of a pack of cigarettes, which is between $5 to $10. The following chart in from the year 2005 and shows the world poverty level as compared to a U.S. one dollar bill...
Put all this information together and it becomes clear that the world's poor could be cared for if smoker's would just give their cigarette money to the poor instead of the evil tobacco companies. Michael Szymanczyk, CEO of Altria/Philip Morris USA made $24,000,000 in 2008. Louis Camilleri, CEO of Philip Morris International took home $21,600,000 in 2008. Not bad for destroying people's lives with cigarettes!!! Alcohol, pornography, casino gambling... these are all hundred-billion-dollar industries, just like cigarettes. Ecclesiastes 12:14, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
Here are some sad statistics that ought to make us think, and to greatly appreciate all the blessings which God has given to us in America. ...
- At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
- More than 80 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where income differentials are widening.
- The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.
- According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
- Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
- Based on enrollment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.
- Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
- Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
- Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.
SOURCE/READ MORE STATISTICS: Feed for Global Issues Updates
When the Israelites came to the Promised Land, God told them to kill all the Canaanites, lest they spring up as a root of bitterness and afflict the people with idolatry and their wicked traditions. The Jews didn't listen and decided to let the Canaanites live, so they could pay taxes instead. What a mistake! God had warned them in Numbers 33:55-56, “But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” The Bible teaches Biblical separation, seen here in the extreme.
The Bible teaches to stop a problem while it's small or else it will become an elephant in your living room. That's why the preceding Scripture passage seems so harsh. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan had rebelled against God for generations, rejecting the Word of the Lord, and now judgment was befalling them. America is about to legalize same-sex marriage at a federal level. If China marches on American soil and annihilates our nation, God will be justified in every way my friend. We have become a stiff-necked and rebellious people, where even our children are blaspheming God just to challenge Him and profit from doing it. God will not be mocked!
Final Thoughts
I don't condemn anyone for their sins and faults, for I am a big sinner just like anybody else (James 2:10; Romans 3:23). God is the only Lawgiver and Judge (James 4:12). Isn't that beautiful? You can't judge me and I can't judge you. People can condemn you and I to the grave, but they can't condemn us to Hell for eternity (but God can). Romans 8:1,34 says there is NO condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit (that is, they have the Holy Spirit indwelling them as a believer). We all have to stand before God when we die (Hebrews 9:27; Ecclesiastes 12:7,14). If you have received the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins, then you are saved.
There's a popular false teaching today in churches that says, “Faith in Jesus is all you need to spend eternity in Heaven.” That's a false gospel because it doesn't include the cross. The Gospel is that Christ died, was buried and rose from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). There is no salvation apart from the cross. The Cross-less Gospel (faith alone in Jesus alone is not the way of salvation).
If God wanted you to have smoke coming out of your head, He would have put a chimney on top!
