Kasz216 said:
SamuelRSmith said:
Smoking costs the Government and society are far more than just in health-care bills. What about education costs? Or the cost of clearing up the excess litter produced by smoking?
What about the costs to society that you can't put a price tag on? Like the cost smoking does to the environment? Or the cost of the social effects that it has when people lose family members/friends much earlier than they should? Or the almost impossible to count figures of the amount it costs in treating illness from passive smoking?
All of these costs, as well as the cost of the health-care, are not paid for by the cigarette firms, and so cigarettes are being sold for too little, it's up to the Government to try and fix that gap, and taxation is one of the ways of doing so.
Also, in a world of raising demand in food produce, is it really wise to be devoting so many resources to the growth and nurturing of tobacco plants? To decrease the cost of food, you need to increase supply, discouraging smoking means a drop in the amount of cigarettes produced, means a drop in demand on tobacco plants, means growing cereals, fruits and veges more profitable for farmers, means a greater supply of foods.
A lot of people on these boards seem to know the price of everything, and yet the value of nothing. |
Such costs are meanignless... they are indirect costs.
I can name DOZENS of indirect costs like that caused by things as indirect as reading.
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How the hell are they meaningless? Just because you can't put a dollar sign next to something doesn't mean it's meaningless.
It's highly important, it's this kind of attitude that has led to many of the environmental problems that we're currently having, and a general break down in society (crime rates, depression, divorces, etc).
Go on, then, do it, name DOZENS (remember, dozens - that's at least 24) of indirect costs that come from reading - and how many of them are anywhere near as damaging as the indirect costs of smoking.
Also, are you just going to disregard the rest of my post? Didn't highwaystar101 accuse you of something similar to this just earlier in the thread?
