Why?
The 14 years come off the end of the smokers life. That's 14 years of social security and medicare that are paid for by the smoker while he/she is working, but never collected by the smoker since he/she dies early.
From a purely economic stand-point, it is in the government's best interest to PROMOTE smoking. It may be the only way to keep those two programs solvent for a few more years.
From a purely economic stand-point, it is in the government's best interest to PROMOTE smoking. It may be the only way to keep those two programs solvent for a few more years.
That's a rather ghoulish argument for smoking! In many countries, cigarettes are a government monopoly, and public efforts to reduce smoking are minimal. Makes you wonder. At any rate, I'm glad I never smoked.