re: #140 BryanS

See, I don’t know why smokers catch such crap over the costs of their care—they die before they get social security and medicare in greater numbers. Maybe it’s a morbid thought, but don’t they actually reduce costs to these programs?

The NHS actually did a study a few years ago into precisely this issue.

I think in the end they decided that the money question was too complicated to figure out if you included everything (lifetime productivity, the cost of depression in your close relatives and so forth).

Overall they still seem to think that we’re better off trying to persuade people not to smoke.