2009-01-05, 11:38 AM
I abhor smoking... It's flat out stupid.
- Drain on your wallet
- Drain on your health
- Drain on your friends & family's health through secondhand smoke
- Makes you stink, yellows the teeth, etc.
There's not a single good reason to start and the only reason to continue is addiction. The problem is that tobacco companies are a huge cash cow for the governments. For example, I'm going to use Canada's numbers for 2005 because it's the first thing Google brought up:
Health care costs due to tobacco-related sickness: 4+ billion
Income made on tobacco taxes: 9 billion
Anti-smoking campaign costs: 8 million
Tobacco company profit: 1.5 billion
That's a decent chunk of cash every year for the two tiers of government and it's even more in the States, due to the lack of universal health care. The anti-smoking campaigns are just there as a public relations ploy; the government LOVES the smokers because they can just keep gouging up the prices and the smoker keeps on coming back anyway, almost like a junkie.
The government won't want to throw that much money away, so nothing will change.
That said, I don't mind the smokers that much. Their choosing to kill themselves helps pay for my road repairs, snow removal, etc. Sure, they're annoying as all hell but they're mostly avoidable.
- Drain on your wallet
- Drain on your health
- Drain on your friends & family's health through secondhand smoke
- Makes you stink, yellows the teeth, etc.
There's not a single good reason to start and the only reason to continue is addiction. The problem is that tobacco companies are a huge cash cow for the governments. For example, I'm going to use Canada's numbers for 2005 because it's the first thing Google brought up:
Health care costs due to tobacco-related sickness: 4+ billion
Income made on tobacco taxes: 9 billion
Anti-smoking campaign costs: 8 million
Tobacco company profit: 1.5 billion
That's a decent chunk of cash every year for the two tiers of government and it's even more in the States, due to the lack of universal health care. The anti-smoking campaigns are just there as a public relations ploy; the government LOVES the smokers because they can just keep gouging up the prices and the smoker keeps on coming back anyway, almost like a junkie.
The government won't want to throw that much money away, so nothing will change.
That said, I don't mind the smokers that much. Their choosing to kill themselves helps pay for my road repairs, snow removal, etc. Sure, they're annoying as all hell but they're mostly avoidable.