GOVERNMENT OWES SMOKERS A SUBSIDY
Perhaps smokers ought to be suing Social Security and private pension funds for all the money they'll save by dying early. The best estimates of the nationwide dollar "cost" of smoking, including savings from premature death and income from excise taxes, are negative numbers. If the country's health is to be measured fiscally, an economist ... [said] "cigarette smoking should be subsidized rather than taxed."




