system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: If there’s a cigarette tax there should be a fast food tax.

I am not a smoker but in Oregon we recently voted on upping the cigarette tax (I didn’t) and I find the whole thing rather ridiculous. Seems more political than scientific considering salt and sugar cause heart disease most of the time. Why can people over indulge in terrible food without tax repercussions? I understand that food is a necessity to life, but fast food surely isn’t and I also include your Tyson anytizers in this statement as well. 



They say smokers cost health care quite a bit of money, but what about dollar menus?
gpt
I think you already answered the question yourself. It’s much easier to place an excise tax on something like cigarettes that don’t serve any actual human need. Taxing food is much more complicated. People need food, and putting a tax on the foods that are most easily accessible for poor people becomes a regressive tax.