The Justice Department wants tobacco companies to use print and television ads to admit that smoking causes a multitude of health problems. These are some the DOJ's proposals for what those admissions should be:
"We falsely marketed low tar and light cigarettes as less harmful than regular cigarettes to keep people smoking and sustain our profits"
"For decades, we denied that we controlled the level of nicotine delivered in cigarettes. Here's the truth, we control nicotine delivery to create and sustain smokers' addiction, because that's how we keep customers coming back."
"A federal court is requiring tobacco companies to tell the truth about cigarette smoking. Here's the truth: ... Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day."
Pretty serious stuff.
A few weeks ago, our Pakistani cab driver told us he'd never had a sip of alcohol in his life. Why? Because since childhood he was taught that it was addictive.
But he also told us he used to smoke four packs of cigarettes a day. No one had told him that they were addictive.
How did he quit? Cold turkey. He said he was physically ill and unable to work for two months after he quit, but has been fine ever since.
Imagine if the tobacco industry ceased to exist. At least 30,000 Americans are employed by big tobacco, plus there'd be a huge loss in tax revenue. But then healthcare costs would probably drop significantly. It's a weird slippery slope in the sense that if the government is going to get into the business of healthcare by forcing people to buy health insurance, then non-smokers like myself are not going to want to be in the same risk pool as smokers who will have a much greater likelihood of needing costly treatments for lung cancer at a relatively young age (nor would I want to be in the same pool as people who are obese, etc.) (Ok, I don't want to get started on this because I don't really know what I'm talking about.)
One more thing about smoking: Cindy and I listened to a sales pitch from a life insurance saleswoman a couple of years ago (because Selena got a job there and this woman was training her), and when it came time to assess our health before giving us a rate quote, the saleswoman asked us only one question:
Do you smoke cigarettes?
That was the ONLY health related question she asked!!
There was a rate for smokers, and there was a rate for non-smokers. (We'd also have to take a physical, but the saleswoman said that the results of the physical were unlikely to affect the rate anywhere near the answer to the smoking question.)
There was a rate for smokers, and there was a rate for non-smokers. (We'd also have to take a physical, but the saleswoman said that the results of the physical were unlikely to affect the rate anywhere near the answer to the smoking question.)
(We didn't get the life insurance. The rate of return wasn't anything special -- they didn't even tell us the actual rate, they just showed us the cash flows, I had to calculate the rate myself -- it basically seemed like a way to hedge against a potential tax increase that would hit an IRA/401k when it comes time to withdraw (or for those of us who don't have much in a pre-tax retirement account, we're not hedging as much as we'd simply be betting that tax rates will increase by putting our after-tax income into an investment vehicle that won't get taxed when we withdraw)) (does that sound right?)
...
quick note:
I heard about this on the radio the other day and I had to see it to believe it.
Click on the link. Trust me.
How does that happen?
Look at Clinton's face from the :26 - :31
1 comment:
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