I am not
convinced about the “excessive” cost to the NHS, and to the nation as a whole,
that smoking (and gluttony) incurs. And
for four reasons:
First, if
all those people dying of smoking related diseases (and Big Macs) hadn’t smoked,
they would live longer, end up requiring care and would die of other things, all
incurring costs that would otherwise have not been incurred, and that should all
therefore be deducted from the costs of treating the smoking (and gluttony) related
diseases.
Second,
tobacco is a heavily taxed product and brings in billions of tax revenue every
year. So, if nobody smoked, that revenue
would also need deducting from the costs of treating the smoking related diseases.
Third,
while smokers (and gluttons) are alive, they still pay into pension funds and
National Insurance, and because they die early, the DWP and the pension
industry saves huge amounts of pension money they would otherwise have to pay
out if those people lived “full term”.
And fourth,
they keep the population down, thus reducing the burden on the nation’s
resources.
Only by
deducting all of the above costs, from the costs of treating the smoking (and
gluttony) related diseases can we get the actual cost to the nation that
smoking (and gluttony) incurs.
I
think there’s an argument for actually encouraging smoking. Tax it to the hilt, allow unbridled
advertising, but retain the ban in public places for the sake of those of us
who don’t smoke. That way more people
would die before requiring long term care, and before collecting their pensions,
leaving more for the rest of us. It’s
all in accordance with Darwinian survival of the fittest. In the case of smoking, those with the
fittest minds.
