Okay Fine I'll concede defeat on my fuzzy math skills. A point remains that this "study" did not take into account revenues generated by tobacco and alcohol use. That is a severely flawed study. What if a study had said The Calgary Flames lose X amount of money per season because they pay out millions in salaries. Note * "this study" doesn't take into account gate revenues, parking or concession takes. Therefore there is no way it costs the economy $40B. I'm sure they could have grown the number to $100B if they wanted to. including costs such as The tabacco farmer wastes gas and oil tilling crops and spend way too much on pesticides and fertilizers. Ashtray companies strip the Canadian Shield of metal products in turn causing those miners the dreaded Black Lung and ensuing health care costs.
This arguement is going nowhere. I conclude with this. Everyone dies, health care costs are a by product of death. Smokers/drinkers pony up a lot extra in sin taxes etc. for essentially the same services that non-smokers/drinkers enjoy. Lets not label smokers/drinkers the devil because they are not!
My wife has cancer. Is this smoking/eating/Drink related? NO she eats well, does not smoke and has an ocassional glass of wine. It's called life (and or death). I have no idea what the health care costs will add up to and I don't really give a rats ass. We are all going to die and as Canadians we are supposed to help share the burden with pride and a sense of duty. After all isn't that what seperates us from The Americans and makes us Canadian.
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