It started about 1980. A worldwide phenomenon. The retail price of tobacco products (with a conspicuous focus on cigarettes) has climbed along an exponential curve since then.
Within the US, there has been little apparent correlation with which political party was in power. There does seem to be a difference between a first-term presidency and its second term.
If you zoom in on specific slices of that price curve, you can make a strong political argument (for or against either major party), so long as you don't zoom back out and see the contextual reality. A smoothed trend line would demonstrate a continuous, relentless, exponential growth of cigarette prices. (There is also a "reasonable" linear, average slope that could be drawn.) If you examine similar graphs for most other countries, the trend is the same, and over the same interval. The World Health Organization evangelizes worldwide tobacco taxation increases, and publicly criticizes laggards.
In mathematics, exponential curves soar to astronomical values, without limit. In our world, exponential curves are discernible in many natural and man-made phenomena, but they are not limitless. (E. coli bacteria double their numbers every 20 minutes, yet they have not engulfed the universe.) With commercial cigarettes, the limit is likely the cost as a fraction of average income. Obviously, when the cost is high enough, nobody will buy.
There is also a social factor that may encourage cascades of legislation which, despite being unreasonable, can not be tenably opposed.
So, expect this increasingly rapid price rise to continue, regardless of politics, until the economics of carrying it further render the concept moot.
Bob
Within the US, there has been little apparent correlation with which political party was in power. There does seem to be a difference between a first-term presidency and its second term.
If you zoom in on specific slices of that price curve, you can make a strong political argument (for or against either major party), so long as you don't zoom back out and see the contextual reality. A smoothed trend line would demonstrate a continuous, relentless, exponential growth of cigarette prices. (There is also a "reasonable" linear, average slope that could be drawn.) If you examine similar graphs for most other countries, the trend is the same, and over the same interval. The World Health Organization evangelizes worldwide tobacco taxation increases, and publicly criticizes laggards.
In mathematics, exponential curves soar to astronomical values, without limit. In our world, exponential curves are discernible in many natural and man-made phenomena, but they are not limitless. (E. coli bacteria double their numbers every 20 minutes, yet they have not engulfed the universe.) With commercial cigarettes, the limit is likely the cost as a fraction of average income. Obviously, when the cost is high enough, nobody will buy.
There is also a social factor that may encourage cascades of legislation which, despite being unreasonable, can not be tenably opposed.
So, expect this increasingly rapid price rise to continue, regardless of politics, until the economics of carrying it further render the concept moot.
Bob
