[On the Road to Serfdom]

First, for the record I would eliminate cigarette taxes and don’t oppose cigarettes, but the property rights issue not so one sided as some here assume.

If I own a lake but people are free to dump toxic waste into it do I really own it? Part of ownership is the right to keep others from polluting it. Private land is generally better taken care of and protected than government land.

There are competing property rights here. The right to smoke on your property vs. the right to prevent others from dumping their pollution your property.

There is a classic example of smoke from a smokestack hurting a nearby a dry cleaning business. Does the first business have a right to emit smoke from their property or does the dry cleaning business have a right to prevent others from putting smoke on its property? Neither side is more “pro-property rights” than the other. (See The Coase Theorem.)

[On the Road to Serfdom]

One other thing: My post applies to people who own their apartment/condo. For renters, the apartment owner should be free to set the rules about smoking, otherwise that would go against property rights.