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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (31547)	4/1/2005 5:56:09 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 90947

Holly, tell X that Harvard economist Kip Viscusi estimates the marginal external (i.e. social as opposed to private) costs and benefits of smoking as follows: External costs: · Costs of second-hand smoke to nonsmokers, $.16 per pack · Costs to government of extra medical care for smokers, $.55 per pack · Costs to private health plans of extra medical care for smokers, $.14 per pack · Tax revenue loss from the shorter life-expectancy of smokers, $.40 per pack · Costs to society of extra sick leave for smokers, $0.01 per pack · Costs to society of extra fires from smoking, $0.02 per pack. External benefits: · The shorter lives of smokers lowers the costs to government and private insurers of providing health care in nursing homes, $.23 per pack · The shorter lives of smokers lowers the costs to government and private pension providers of providing Social Security and private pensions, $1.19 per pack So, as you can see, the effect of smokers' behavior, however self-destructive, is a net positive benefit to society (excluding their own private benefits, which must exceed their costs or the market wouldn't exist) of some 14 cents a pack. Economic theory, BTW, shows that in the presence of net positive externalities, markets will tend to underproduce, absent some means of internalizing those benefits into the private decisions of actors in the market. In other words, the privately optimum quantity of cigarettes produced and consumed, given the set of private costs and benefits, is less than what is socially optimal. Such a market inefficiency, however, can be easily addressed with subsidies to producers or consumers, thus lowering the private cost of smoking and thereby increasing quantity consumed. Less effective would be efforts at moral suasion - i.e. encouraging people to smoke more, perhaps through advertising or educational programs, so that society can realize the external benefits. The irony, of course, is that while we do subsidize producers of tobacco, those subsidies are offset by high excise taxes on the sale of cigarettes. Seems the anti-smoking zealots are costing us all a lot of potential gains from increased smoking. Hope that helps. ;-)

To: Lady Lurksalot who wrote (31547)	4/1/2005 7:51:56 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

I STRONGLY recommend that X self-medicate her neuroses- -or use the prescription variety if needed. In any case, DO SOMETHING! I got some questions: Back in the Good Old Days back in junior high when I hung around organic chem labs, no particular precautions were taken to protect personnel from their fumes. Now such are. Why is this? When one of those refineries up north spews a blast of noxious chemicals in the air, sirens sound and radio and TV programs are interrupted to tell people in the area to either (a) stay inside - completely ("shelter in place" is the terminology) or (b) get the H*** out! Now many of those chemicals are the same ones found in cigarette smoke - such as, say, acetone (also found rather commonly in that organic chem lab). If those chemicals are harmless, why are such precautions taken? Do you DENY the ability of chemicals, particularly if applied over a period of time as they are in smoking, to cause cancer and other health problems? Is it REALLY necessary for me to cite studies showing such effects? When ARE you going to quit the Filthy Weed and save part of the remainder of your life? There are many awful ways to die. Cancer is one of them. Take it from one who knows.