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SMOKERS' COST TO SOCIETY

  

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SMOKED OUT: Anti-Tobacco Activism at the World Bank - A review of: Curbing The Epidemic: Governments And The Economics Of Tobacco Control, World Bank, 1999 - Scathing review of the about the World Bank report that, like everything related to anti-tobacco, has very little to do with reality and much to do with a political agenda of frauds, political and economic schizophrenia, and economic extortion of smokers. The report, written by Richard Tren and Hugh High, is published by the INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

 "The World Bank (WB) has joined the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a world war on tobacco. As its initial broadside, the WB recently published an astonishing report. The following paper exposes the many follies and economic errors in what is not a decent economic study, but a document for crusaders."

The Governmental Composition Of The Insurance Costs Of Smoking - By W. Kip Viscusi - The estimated health risks from smoking have significant external financial consequences for society. Studies at the national level indicate that cigarettes are self-financing since external costs such as those due to illnesses are offset by cost savings associated with premature death, chiefly pension costs. This paper extends this analysis to all 50 states and considers the costs considered in the state attorneys general suits against the cigarette industry. Cigarettes are always self-financing from the standpoint of costs to each state. The extent of the cost savings is less than at the federal level. However, smokers' higher medical costs are outweighed by reduced nursing home expenditures, lower pension costs, and excise taxes, where each of these factors alone usually exceeds the medical cost effect.
SMOKERS' COST TO SOCIETY, EH? - Far too often we hear the antismoking lobbyists from the various ministries of health making dramatic accusations of smokers' cost to society, in the attempt to force them to feel guilty, and change their behaviour. The following chart may help make Canadian smokers aware of the economic importance, and power. Canadian smokers contribute to their economy 4.5 times more than their American counterparts.  Canadian Smokers' Contribution To Tax Revenue 1989 Through 1997
SMOKERS' COST TO SOCIETY, HUH?
State Cigarette Excise Taxes Collected -- Cigarette Excise Taxes By State
The operatives of the antitobacco lobby continue to mislead taxpayers about smokers' cost to society. In fact, the contribution of  smokers to society is so high, we have reason to feel VERY proud - as well as contemptuous of the antismoking parasites, who are leaching enormous amounts of money from the system, and getting rich while falsifying information on a full-time basis. We link with the RJR website for a detailed account of smokers' contributions in 1997. Please download and examine these figures every time the Ministry of Health throws its scum at you. Here is a teaser: TOTAL SMOKERS' DIRECT TAX CONTRIBUTION TO THE US ECONOMY IN 1997:$7,306,959,000 (Canadian equivalent: 9,864,394,650)
The Health Care Costs of Smoking - Conclusions: If people stopped smoking, there would be a savings in health care costs, but only in the short term. Eventually, smoking cessation would lead to increased health care costs. (N Engl J Med 1997;337:1052-7.)
Smoking Not A Factor In Work Absences - Conclusions: "Absence with respiratory complaints was not associated with age, height, body mass index, or smoking."  According to a study from the Netherlands smokers are no more likely to miss work because of respiratory problems than are non-smokers.
Smokers' Burden On Society: Myth and Reality in Canada - The racketeers of the Ministries of Health tell us that smokers are a burden on society. This Canadian study performed in 1992 by André Raynauld (Senior Fellow) and Jean-Pierre Vidal of the Institute for Research and Public Policy, demonstrates that in the worst case scenario smokers support non-smokers at the tune of $4.3 billion -- that's 4,300 million dollars a year, net, after considering the extra health expenses!  With this kind of money, we don't ask for accommodation, we DEMAND it!   We are tired of supporting both non-smokers, and the parasitic government that is oppressing us.
The US Congressional Research Study On Smokers' Cost To Society - Cigarette Taxes to Fund Health Care Reform: An Economic Analysis - A conclusive -- and not well known -- US congressional study proving conclusively that the picture painted by the antismokers' propaganda is yet another lie. A real eye-opener for those who are convinced that smokers exact a financial cost on society.
Congressional Research Service - The Proposed Tobacco Settlement: Who Pays for the Health Costs of Smoking? - Jane G. Gravelle - Economics Division - Updated April 30, 1998 - "Smoking has apparently brought financial gain to both the federal and state governments, especially when tobacco taxes are taken into account. In general, smokers do not appear to currently impose net financial costs on the rest of society." To download the document in PDF format, click here. To obtain a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here.
Lies, Damn Lies... - A CLOSER LOOK AT STATISTICS ON SMOKING AND HEALTH - In these two learned papers Professor Finch does not challenge the often heavily qualified findings of various researchers on the possible effect of smoking on health. As a professional statistician, his only interest is in the way such "facts" are presented to the innocent public for the purposes of propaganda, thus in Part I he documents how public opinion has been turned - often viciously - against smokers for fear of contagion by 'passive smoking'. It turns out that available research provides no acceptable scientific basis for such a trumped-up danger.

In Part II he provides a further corrective to alarmist health warnings which can be grasped without specialist statistical knowledge.

 Prof. Peter Finch has been Foundation Professor of Mathematical Statistics at Monash University, Australia, since 1964. He has contributed to countless scholarly journals including The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Information Sciences, The Australian Journal of Statistics, The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Acta Mathematica Scientia, Biometrics, The European Journal of Cancer and Clinical Oncology, as well as to such books as The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, The Encyclopedia of Statistical Science and The Foundations of Statistical Theories in the Physical Sciences.