Do Smokers Have Rights? The Science and Politics of Tobacco

Cato Policy Report, vol. XVI, no. 6, ^ | November/December 1994 | William Niskanen,Jane Gravelle

[sh0tgun willie]

Jane Gravelle: After the Clinton administration proposed a fairly substantial increase in the cigarette tax as a way of funding health care reform, my colleague Dennis Zimmerman and I wrote a paper entitled "Cigarette Taxes to Fund Health Care Reform and Economic Analysis."* The part of the paper I'd like to talk about is the justifications for increasing the cigarette tax. I'm an economist, so I start with the presumptions that people have subjective preferences about what they like to do and how they spend their money and that, in general, we want to allow people to enjoy their lifetime resources in accord with those preferences. We would intervene in those decisions only under certain kinds of circumstances that we try to delineate and measure.

[HoosierHawk]

Thank you.

For ten months of the year, five days a week, every day, I am stuck in my car in the gridlock of the Illinois Tollway system for hours.

Trading that time for a smoke-filled pool hall would be a blessing.

[SheLion]

Gays get rights and they are what? Supposedly 4 to 8 percent of the population (although sometimes it seems more like 90%)

The major minorities in this country raise a constant stink over everything and get accommodated.

Even the Muslims have everyone shaking in their boots.

And 20% of Americans smoke, but seem to have no inclination to take up for themselves. I don't get it.

I don't get it either.  And now the lawmakers are trying to make smokers pay more, when smokers already pay more then their fair share for health care!

I still say that the chicken chit lawmakers don't know what to do about all the illegals in our Country sucking our health system dry, so they have to blame something else, the smokers, on our rising health care cost.  Smokers are easy pickings.

Getting the damn illegals out of here is not!

One illegal had to go into a Mass hospital.  When he came out, he left behind a bill for over $10,000!  Guess who pays for that?  WE THE PEOPLE!

[Alter Kaker]

His stats aren't true, just more troll numbers.

Oh no? The National Highway Transit Safety Administration is lying?

[berdie]

The Civil Rights Act could very well work in the favor of smokers. Maybe that isn't the best example.

[SheLion]

I'm afraid you're right. One can always identify the younger generation. They think they're going to live forever, never having been told life is fatal. The rabid envirnonmentalist also worship NATURE. Wonder if they know that in the end NATURE is going to break them on the wheel?

Here is one of my favorite cartoons: hehe

I'm afraid you're right. One can always identify the younger generation. They think they're going to live forever, never having been told life is fatal. The rabid envirnonmentalist also worship NATURE. Wonder if they know that in the end NATURE is going to break them on the wheel?

Here is one of my favorite cartoons: hehe

[Alter Kaker]

The Civil Rights Act could very well work in the favor of smokers. Maybe that isn't the best example.

Only after the passage of the 28th Amendment. Until then, tobacco addicts aren't a suspect class.

[SheLion]

Why waste time on a half wit?

Who are you calling a half wit??????

[bfree]

Ergo, obesity increases the life span. That's just stupid. But it also somehow misses the point

It isn't stupid, it's true. But you are a half wit who can't comprehend simple facts.

[altura]

Well, gee, thanks.

I now realize you are really a nice guy.

[texaslil]

Oh, my goodness! Now I remember you. You're that guy from OSHA. The guy with all the NUMBERS who comes to my business and fines me for not having all the salt shakers in the employee lunchroom labeled as hazzardous matearial.

[phil1750]

Regardless of statistics, people will smoke, I do. My problem with the whole issue, is the gov. telling businesses how they are to run their business and who they can and cannot allow to frequent their business. Let the business owners decide how they want to run their establishment.

[SheLion]

Sorry, but that is incorrect. 400,000 Americans die from smoking each year. 40,000 die from motor vehicle accidents. When you consider that nearly 100% of the population enters cars, but only 20% smokes, the danger rate isn't even close!

Excuse me!  But when a person is killed in a vehicle accident, it states on his death certificate as such.  I dare you to show us all just ONE death certificate that states that a person died from smoking or even second hand smoke.  I dare you! 

And it better be official, notarized and with the state seal!

[bfree]

The only one I see posting, our little buddy, Alter, because little bikerboy left.

[Alter Kaker]

Well, gee, thanks. I now realize you are really a nice guy.

You called me a "damned liar" after I caught you making a blatant falsehood. That's chutzpah.

[Gabz]

Let me help out. You are a half wit fascist.

Good grief - you give it FAR to much credit. This is not a half-wit, it is a total witLESS.

[hotshu]

'scuse me for not being PC. Facts are facts. Truth is Truth.

[Alter Kaker]

I dare you to show us all just ONE death certificate that states that a person died from smoking or even second hand smoke.

Oddly enough, SheLion is probably the only person on the planet not convinced that smoking will kill you.

[Alter Kaker]

Now I remember you. You're that guy from OSHA. The guy with all the NUMBERS who comes to my business and fines me for not having all the salt shakers in the employee lunchroom labeled as hazzardous matearial.

Have it your way. But if Americans were still driving 1945 automobiles, something on the order of 500,000 Americans would die on the roads each year, instead of 40,000.

[SheLion]

Ohio went totally smoke free and now I will not go out and spend $50-60 for dinner and a few drinks and not be allowed to have a after dinner smoke. It's a shame for the business owners, it's not their fault. I just don't see why I should go out and spend money on a non enjoyable evening. I'm furious and am in the process of moving to S.C. where I haven't found any smoking nazi's yet.(Not the reason I'm moving, the reason being Ohio is an armpit and with this latest fiasco, I really don't want to support this stupid state anymore. Only the poorest city in the nation (Cleveland) can also ban more things to further depress our economy. What a bunch of fools.

I don't anymore either.  And I was a good tipper.  I now order in, do take-out or party at friends where we can lay back and relax.  I don't need to spend my money in a reform school setting!

[Alter Kaker]

'scuse me for not being PC. Facts are facts. Truth is Truth.

I think UpAllNight's point was that if you supporttobacco because it was part of the bedrock of America's early economy, then you have to support slavery for the exact same reason.