Quote:
Originally Posted by flameswin
You pretty much answered your own question imo. Motorbikes, snowmobiles, fast cars, fast food etc don't kill you if used properly. The only one that's close to smoking is fast food, but even fast food isn't as bad, because you can eat fast food once and awhile as long as you generally eat healthy and are active. Smoking is the only one that is literally killing you everytime you inhale.
Plus, you said "disregarding increased health care costs", well I think a lot of people would say "why disregard health care costs?" Health care costs have proven to be HUGE to pay for the 100's of thousands of smokers who need medical attention due to smoking.
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In regard to the health care costs the reason I said disregard is because I can use the same logic to increase motorbike users, fast food eaters etc. Pretty much any activity that increases your chances of increasing our health care costs should be directly taxed to those individuals that increase these costs. So health care costs have proven to be HUGE to pay for the 100s of thousands of people who engage in dangerous activities that need medical attention.
As to the knock against smoking that if used properly, again I ask why is that any of your business if others choose to kill themselves slowly? If health care costs is your only answer then refer to the first part of my post as to why that is unfair to smokers. Everyone should be treated by the same standards, so if you can choose to be an alcoholic and kill yourself, or get fat, or drive too fast or engage in any activity that increases your chances of being a burden on the health care system then that activity by your logic should be illegal.
Furthermore, why do you think that your paternalistic view of everything should be followed? Just because you said so? DOn't we as a free society have the right to choose what activities we partake in? If I want to die a little that is my right, and I may not smoke so much that it is dangerous to my health. Maybe I only smoke when I'm drinking, as many people do, in which case I am likely not to have any burden on the health care system.
Bottom line is people are aware of the dangers of smoking, just like how they are aware of the dangers of snowmobiling in the mountains in high avalance risk areas, yet you condone snowmobiling but not smoking. How well each activity kills you shouldn't matter, only that thousands of activities can kill you, used properly or not, but I don't think you can possibly come up with a coherent explanation as to why smoking should be banned, while other activities remain legal, that doesn't involve you saying "well because I said so" or that it is simply your opinion, which of course you are entitled to. Just don't try and say that your justification for smoking being illegal has any better reasoning than any of the other thousands of dangerous activities.