-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
smoking never bothered me. i don't do it personally, but if people want crap in their lungs they can do it, just as long as its not in my face.
-------------------- "Tragedy is when I cut my finger, Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."-Mel Brooks
Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
You know...it kinda makes sense in a callous economic way. If taxes from the sale of cigarettes raise more than the amount of health care it costs to treat smokers before they die, it is a pretty good deal for governments. Especially as these are people at the end of their productive lives anyways.
Kinda cold-hearted, but it is a valid point if you play the devil's advocate.
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Let's see now... I'd put "Economy" in the title, instead of "Society".
Apparently, people who smoke spend a sum of money on sigarettes (and pay related taxes) that is greater than the total amount of credits they would pay in the (on average) 15 or so extra years they would otherwise live. Other variables in the equation are the saved healthcare costs (not having to keep these cancerstick-sucking idiots alive that much longer while they sue tobacco companies for the health problems smoking gave them - but that's a different matter), the loss of trade revenues...
But then, we live in a world where economic concerns and needs always outweigh the importance of any other issue, so this statement doesn't at all surprise me. Of course, if someone wants to deliberately pollute his body and risk his health with some of the most toxic, filthy chemicals ever invented, it's his or her own responsibility. Shame though, that it is ruthlessly exploited for marginal monetary gains. Devils advocate? An understatement.
[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: The_Evil_Lord ]
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Well, off-hand I can remember the Canadian government doing a similar study in which they concluded cig taxes paid about a quarter of the total health-care costs of caring for smokers. So clearly the math is different as one compares health care system to health care system.
[ July 18, 2001: Message edited by: The_Tom ]
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
But Niven wrote "Think of it as Evolution in Action."
Heinlein WAS 80 when he died, after all (same age as my grandmother when she died, and she'd never smoked), he'd had a good run.
Plus, didn't he have a chronic lung condition in the first place?
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
So does second-hand smoke.
And yes, you CAN get smoking diseases from that, even though you DO NOT smoke.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
