smoking

[Raistlin]

And your justification for this is...?

Well, seeing how the average cigarette pack costs near $4-$8, and the average smoker smokes near a pack a day (maybe not the WHOLE pack but pretty close to it.), it results in $28-$56 per week in cigarette consumption. As days go by...it results in $112-$224 used per month. Let's go by year now, which would be $1344-$2688. If you live to be near the age of 50, you will have spent over $100,000. As you know, the level of smoking increases as you smoke because there is more demand for nicotine in your body. Thus, eventually you will end up smoking more than a pack a day later on in life. According to this typical teenager example you might end up smoking near a million. Remember that this is for only one person.

A large population of the world smokes, and most of them have been smoking since they were teens. You can imaging for yourself how much money the tobacco companies are making each day.

So far, if the tobacco companies can spend that much on just advertising and promoting their products, don't you think that they should be able to pay the healthcare of their customers? If the tobacco companies reduced their total spending on advertising by at least half, they would be able to spend the rest of the money helping those who are suffering due to tobacco.

As you know, reducing advertising reduces more non-smokers to become a smoker which eventually leads to a more smoke-free environment in the future.

Although it is the choice for some people to smoke, they still should recieve healthcare payments from the tobacco companies. Just look at how much the average smoker spends, and what if they don't have enough money to pay their healthcare bills due to buying so many cigarette packs over their course in life? It happens.

You're missing one HUGE point: it doesn't matter how much money the cigarette companies have. It only matters whose responsibility it is for the man lying in the hospital. Whether the cigarette companies have $5 or $5 billion is irrelevent.

Others are forced into smoking at an early age due to peers, being cool, etc. It isn't generally their fault that they smoke and have continued throughout their life. Tobacco companies should pay for their healthcare. It is because of tobacco companies that all this mess started in the first place right? So, it should be their responsibility to take care of their customers' health.

Unless I point a gun to your head and demand you smoke(or otherwise threaten the use of force), you were not forced to smoke. "Society made me do it!" is the excuse of a person abdicating the responsibility of living his own life.