reply to post by NuclearPaul
No kidding on that eh? The Government is in the insane position of NEEDING smokers and more of them all the time because so much tax base has come to
depend on the money generated by ciggy taxes. Yet, any common sense and public health policy has to consider that first, that tax money isn't going
to offset medical costs anymore than FICA withdrawal goes straight to what it's claimed for (Most makes a little detour to the General Fund to join
the rest) but more importantly, the costs of treating end stage cancers relating to smoking far outweigh what smokers are paying in the taxes to begin
with.
So you're right, it's a crazy thing and a lose/lose with so much mixed messaging, it's amazing anyone stays sane with it sometimes. All I have to
say is when I started at 13, the link to cancer was suspected and not established beyond all doubt...let alone proven at that time for knowledge by
the tobacco companies well before that.
These days? From preserved smoker's lungs to the raw data and pure stats of medical recording out of the CDC...the linkage is impossible to deny to
all but a smoker still making rationalizations to themselves for how suicide on the installment plan really isn't what they're doing.
