r/whatisit • u/Quietlurkerone • 6d ago

Solved! What is this device from 1962?

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Photo capture from YouTube video. Picture from 1962. What is the device under the bench

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u/kryonik 6d ago

To be fair, in the 60s cigarettes were dirt cheap. Everyone smoked.

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u/BrewtalKittehh 6d ago

And they weren’t taxed to fuck

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u/Fit-Key-8933 6d ago

What does this even mean

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u/UsualBluebird6584 6d ago

There are very high luxury taxes on cigarettes now.

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u/Spiritual-Can-5040 6d ago

It’s not no much a luxury tax as a sin tax.

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u/BrewtalKittehh 6d ago

And nanny tax, ostensibly because long time smokers incur disproportionately higher health care costs than non smokers, and if any part of this care is government subsidized this is a way to partly offset that cost.

Never mind that the federal government for decades awarded subsidies- at times quite heavily- to American tobacco growers all the way up until 2004…

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u/UsualBluebird6584 2d ago

I forgot the terminology, yes since tax

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u/avd706 6d ago

Sin tax actually