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Kasz216 on 13 August 2009
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SamuelRSmith said:
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.

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?

They're meaningless because such costs can be attributed to virtually anything.  You think smoking has led to a breakdown in society?  How?

 

By the way dozens caused by indirect things = in many different things.  Looking hard enough i probably could come up with 24 with reading alone but i'll stop at 8.

1) Damage to the enviorment because of the paper used for the books.

2) Time spend reading could be used working which would generate money for their familes, themselves and the state.

3) The more you read makes it slower for you to respond about things you know about. (Repition priming)

4) Reading can give people an idealized view of the world and set them up for failure when things aren't as easy as they are in popular fiction where people succeed.

5) Reading can give people racist views by reading such things as mein kaumf.

6) Reading can make people influnce people into becomeing radical christains or muslims or some other group who bombs stuff.

7) People who are reading could be spending time with their parents.

8) People who read negative things may develop a negative world view, and optimisitc people are shown to live longer.

 

You can make these kinds of lists for EVERYTHING.  If you are worried about people not paying their fair share for this kind of stuff though... you should be for privatised healthcare.  Then they would be paying for it.

The arguement you have is largely baseless though... when the real truth is... smokers are just an easy target because they're a minority, gross, and looked at negativily.

Pretty much everything people do is going to cost society in some way, outside of working, buying stuff and raising a family.