Quote:
Originally Posted by Houseboy
It's a strange thing this "bad habit" idea. The government (of any persuasion) wants to ban smoking (as it has done in the work place) and is trying, supposedly, to curb people's drinking through this latest bonkers idea. The problem is that the revenue raised by alcohol and smoking is immense. We all know this. The whole thing smacks of pandering to the chattering classes and "being seen" to do the right thing.
The fact is if there were no smoking and alcohol consumption where would the economy be? We wouldn't just lose the revenue, hundreds of thousands would be out of work and claiming social and the revenue from their income tax would also be lost.
So many of the "bad" things that we are warned about keep the economy afloat. The same is true (even more so) of crime. We all hate it (apart from those in it) but if there were no crime the economy would be in melt-down. If you consider all the crime related legitimate jobs (police, security, jails, cctv companies, legal firms, courts, alarm companies, etc.) we'd be in a hell of a mess without it.
Kinda strange when you start thinking about it, isn't it? The economies of most countries in the world are heavily reliant on that which is bad for you or illegal.
I'm a life-long non-smoker by the way.
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As well as all the points you mentioned, it seems like the government want people to live forever, yet they moan about how they are going to find enough money to pay the pensions that these folk would get.
It is all fascist meddling as far as I am concerned...and I neither drink(well, so little I consider myself to be a non-drinker) or smoke, so I have no axe to grind....it is just another way for them to dip their greedy mitts into out wallets.
they will tax fresh air if they can find a way to measure who is taking most of it.