There is an old lecture: add up years of cigarette spending and tell the smoker they could have bought a luxury car.
The equally old comeback is obvious: if not smoking automatically produced a luxury car, why do non-smokers not all drive one?
That objection is logically useful. Money not spent is not the same as money actually saved.
But it does not erase the recurring expense. Small daily spending can become a very large annual number. And if someone does not want a Mercedes in the first place, “a fraction of a Mercedes” is a poor measuring stick.
A gaming PC can be much closer to real life.
Using prices checked on September 11, 2026, this article converts a hypothetical two packs of cigarettes plus ¥220 of alcohol per day into annual spending, years of Mercedes-Benz prices, and months of gaming-PC prices.
Five-second answer
At ¥580 per pack, two packs per day plus ¥220 per day for alcohol equals about ¥503,700 per year.
On the same date, G TUNE listed a Ryzen 7 9800X3D + GeForce RTX 5070 desktop at a sale price of ¥479,800.
So “almost one fairly powerful gaming PC every year” communicates the scale much faster than “a Mercedes after many years.”
1. What does the habit cost per year?
JT listed major 20-cigarette Mevius products at ¥580 per pack in 2026.
Two packs every day gives:
¥580 × 2 × 365 = ¥423,400
Cigarettes alone are ¥423,400 per year.
Alcohol prices vary greatly by product, size, store, and whether the drink is consumed at home or outside. The ¥150 and ¥220 figures below are calculation scenarios, not claimed market averages.
| Daily assumption | 1 year | 10 years |
|---|---|---|
| Cigarettes: ¥580 × 2 packs | ¥423,400 | ¥4,234,000 |
| Alcohol: ¥150 | ¥54,750 | ¥547,500 |
| Alcohol: ¥220 | ¥80,300 | ¥803,000 |
| Two packs + ¥150 alcohol | ¥478,150 | ¥4,781,500 |
| Two packs + ¥220 alcohol | ¥503,700 | ¥5,037,000 |
¥1,380 per day can look ordinary. Switch the unit to one year and it becomes a half-million-yen budget.
Daily spending can walk in quietly; annual spending arrives carrying a gaming tower.
2. How many years does it really take to equal a Mercedes-Benz?
“Mercedes” is not one price.
Prices checked on September 11, 2026 included ¥5.25 million for the A-Class, ¥7.44 million for a C 200 Sports, ¥9.14 million for an E 200, and ¥15.98 million for an S 450 d 4MATIC.
If the full ¥503,700 were actually retained each year:
| Vehicle example | Listed price | Time to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| A-Class | ¥5,250,000 | about 10.4 years |
| C 200 Sports | ¥7,440,000 | about 14.8 years |
| E 200 | ¥9,140,000 | about 18.1 years |
| S 450 d 4MATIC | ¥15,980,000 | about 31.7 years |
The luxury-car comparison is not mathematically absurd. It is simply distant: roughly a decade even for the first example, and more than three decades for the S-Class example.
This also compares vehicle price only. Registration, insurance, options, and running costs are outside the calculation. Quitting cigarettes does not make a Mercedes spontaneously spawn in the parking lot the next morning.
3. In gaming-PC units, the same money fits inside one year
Compare the same ¥503,700 annual amount with G TUNE listings checked on the same date.
| Gaming-PC example | Listed price | Time to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| RTX 5060 outlet desktop | ¥194,800 | about 4.6 months |
| RTX 5070 desktop | ¥299,800 | about 7.1 months |
| Ryzen 7 9800X3D + RTX 5070 sale desktop | ¥479,800 | about 11.4 months |
The Mercedes comparison starts at about ten years. Every PC example is under one year.
The ¥479,800 system is ¥23,900 less than the annual ¥503,700 scenario. In pure arithmetic, one year of that spending is enough for one such machine with a little left over.
The point is not to buy a new PC every year. The point is that ¥500,000 becomes concrete when it maps to something a person could plausibly choose this year.
4. What is wrong with “if you did not smoke, you would own a Mercedes”?
Two claims are being mixed together.
The first is measurable: cigarettes and alcohol can create substantial long-term spending.
The second is not automatic: without those habits, every yen would have remained untouched until it became a luxury car.
Money not spent on cigarettes can go to food, games, travel, rent, or another hobby. It does not teleport into a “future Mercedes” account.
So pointing out that non-smokers do not all own Mercedes-Benz cars is a valid logical objection.
But that objection does not erase the annual ¥423,400 or ¥503,700 cash flow either.
A precise version is: if the same amount were actually redirected into savings, after enough time it could reach the price of the car or PC.
5. What happens when the amount accumulates?
Using ¥503,700 per year, with no investment return, inflation, or price changes:
| Years | Cumulative total | Equivalent ¥479,800 PCs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ¥503,700 | about 1.05 |
| 2 | ¥1,007,400 | about 2.10 |
| 3 | ¥1,511,100 | about 3.15 |
| 5 | ¥2,518,500 | about 5.25 |
| 10 | ¥5,037,000 | about 10.50 |
| 20 | ¥10,074,000 | about 21.00 |
| 30 | ¥15,111,000 | about 31.49 |
After ten years the total is about ¥5.04 million, still slightly below the ¥5.25 million A-Class example, but equivalent to about 10.5 of the ¥479,800 PCs.
A single luxury-car target hides the intermediate scale. PC units make almost every year visible as another complete purchase-sized chunk.
6. The comparison should use something the person actually wants
Spending money on one thing means giving up other things the same money could have bought. That is the basic idea of opportunity cost.
But an alternative only works as a comparison if the person cares about it.
Telling someone who does not want a car that they “could have had a Mercedes” is like telling someone who never plays RPGs that they missed a legendary sword. Expensive, perhaps. Relevant, not necessarily.
A gaming PC works better in this example because ¥500,000 changes from a symbol decades away into a concrete choice this year.
7. Use your own numbers with three inputs
You only need the price per pack, packs per day, and daily alcohol cost.
Annual spending:
(price per pack × packs per day + daily alcohol cost) × 365
Years to a target:
target price ÷ annual spending
Months to a target:
target price ÷ annual spending × 12
For the main scenario:
(580 × 2 + 220) × 365 = ¥503,700
For the ¥479,800 PC:
479,800 ÷ 503,700 × 12 ≈ 11.4 months
At that point the lecture has become a budget calculator.
8. Conclusion — “almost one gaming PC a year” is easier to see than “a Mercedes someday”
Under the hypothetical ¥580-per-pack, two-packs-per-day plus ¥220 alcohol scenario, annual spending is about ¥503,700.
Mapped to current Mercedes-Benz examples, that is about ten years for the A-Class and nearly thirty-two for the S-Class.
Mapped to gaming PCs, ¥194,800 is about 4.6 months, ¥299,800 about 7.1 months, and ¥479,800 about 11.4 months.
If the goal is to understand recurring spending, compare it with something the person genuinely values rather than a luxury object chosen for rhetorical drama.
And the final punchline still matters: not smoking does not automatically deliver a PC either. Only money actually retained remains available for the next choice.
Sources
- JT, Mevius “SAKURA 2026” announcement — ¥580 for major 20-cigarette products.
https://www.jti.co.jp/investors/library/press_releases/20260302_J01.html - Mercedes-Benz Japan, A-Class — ¥5,250,000.
https://www.mercedes-benz.jp/qr/a-class_overview.html - Stern Tennoji, authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer, C-Class Sedan — C 200 Sports MP202602 ¥7,440,000.
https://www.stern-tennoji.co.jp/lp/c-class_sedan/ - Mercedes-Benz Japan, E-Class Sedan — E 200 MP202601 ¥9,140,000.
https://www.mercedes-benz.jp/redirect/20240112_e-class-sedan.html - Mercedes-Benz Japan, S-Class Sedan — S 450 d 4MATIC MP202701 ¥15,980,000.
https://www.mercedes-benz.jp/redirect/20210128_s-sedan_facts-and-lines.html - Mouse Computer / G TUNE, RTX 5060 gaming-PC listings — outlet example ¥194,800.
https://www.mouse-jp.co.jp/store/r/rs1011902_ssp_p2/ - Mouse Computer / G TUNE, GeForce RTX PC listings — RTX 5070 example ¥299,800.
https://www.mouse-jp.co.jp/store/r/rs1010000/?brand=g-tune - Mouse Computer / G TUNE, gaming desktops — Ryzen 7 9800X3D + RTX 5070 sale example ¥479,800.
https://www.mouse-jp.co.jp/store/r/ra3020100/?brand=g-tune
