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We
welcome a new correspondent -
Wayne Gritting,
Philip Morris
Sees the Light
After
decades of sticking their heads in the sand about the hazards of tobacco,
Philip Morris has found a new tactic - promoting the benefits to society
of premature deaths from smoking. A study produced for them by Arthur D.
Little, "one of the foremost consulting firms", found that early
deaths from smoking has "positive effects" for society that more
than counteract the medical costs of treating smoking induced cancer, etc.
This
path-breaking research was limited to smoking in Czechoslovakia, It found
that in 1999, despite health care costs for dying smokers, the government
still had a net gain of $147.1 million from smoking. From these figures,
the American Legacy Foundation calculated the Czech government saved
$1,227 per dead smoker. That's a pretty good return, as Philip Morris
informed government leaders of the Czech Republic.
Philip
Morris has come in for a flood of criticism and has publicly apologized
for the conclusions, . . .
Who
would think to look at the effect of smoking deaths on unemployment? These
authors did, and they found that "replacing those who die early ...
leads to savings in social benefits paid to the unemployed and in costs in
retraining." A wonderful gift to society by smokers.
But
it gets even better. The researchers, with obvious relish, note that when
a smoker dies prematurely, the savings for the state for that year
"is only one part of the positive effect." There's more to come.
You need to look at all the other years the smoker would have lived had
she or he not smoked, because we are told, "the savings will
therefore influence the public balance of smoking in future years(!)"
It's a gift that keeps on giving . . .. Alabama Attorney General Bill
Pryor found that "smoking-related health costs are not excessive,
because smokers die young," . . . The Alabama study apparently was
just the tip of the iceberg, because it pointed to even more studies that
"show taxpayers actually save money in costs for nursing homes,
insurance, pensions, and Social Security benefits because smokers die
young.
The
Philip Morris study is no isolated travesty of reason. The language of the
study, with all its "objectivity," "quantification,"
"demographic data," and "statistical analysis," would
be at home in any university or corporation. ... It’s the same brand of
impersonal, machine-like reasoning. This is our culture speaking.
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