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What do you think would happen if everyone stopped using tobacco and alcohol over night? Would poverty disappear? It’s of course tragic when parents make a bad

by jacobr 6y ago

What do you think would happen if everyone stopped using tobacco and alcohol over night? Would poverty disappear? It’s of course tragic when parents make a bad position even worse, but addiction is a symptom of poverty and not the cause.

newyankee 6y ago
Indeed, a lot of hard laborers need the addiction to plough through their life. Although one unfortunate aspect of this habit unlike in other countries is the casual disregard for spitting anywhere. The issue is that India is a highly resource strained country and most internal issues are manifestations of the same fights over limited resources that show up as something else.
aaomidi 6y ago
And nicotine usage is heavily skewered towards people who have had a bad quality of life. Usually due to financial issues. It's also surprising that we could've played a better role with tobacco but instead heavily promoted and romanticized it for decades.
njsubedi 6y ago
Nothing can make poverty (as a national problem) go away overnight. But if a guardian started buying 50 rupees (USD 80 cents) worth of milk/eggs/notebooks/pens instead of cigarette, tobacco and alcohol tomorrow, or just saved that up for later, the quality of life will start rising for sure. That fifty rupees, which is what an average person spends a day, makes a difference.
- frequentnapper 6y ago
  Most likely the price of milk/eggs/notebook would go up if like you say vast majority of those people could start to afford it.
  - radegast 6y ago
    Do you know why there are left and right-wing economists? Because economics is not a science. So yeah, "most likely" is just a wild guess. My guess is that if the price of milk/eggs/notebooks increases, it will drive more people to get cows/chickens/start creating notebooks, thus lowering the price. Hey, its economics, you can say whatever.
  - mandeepj 6y ago
    A lot of it goes into waste also
  - mrmuagi 6y ago
    I think this speaks to the fact that essential items supply/demand is skewed by purchase of cigarettes then? You can't really survive off of cigarettes, I'd imagine.

by jacobr 6y ago

newyankee 6y ago

Indeed, a lot of hard laborers need the addiction to plough through their life. Although one unfortunate aspect of this habit unlike in other countries is the casual disregard for spitting anywhere. The issue is that India is a highly resource strained country and most internal issues are manifestations of the same fights over limited resources that show up as something else.

aaomidi 6y ago

And nicotine usage is heavily skewered towards people who have had a bad quality of life. Usually due to financial issues. It's also surprising that we could've played a better role with tobacco but instead heavily promoted and romanticized it for decades.

njsubedi 6y ago

Nothing can make poverty (as a national problem) go away overnight. But if a guardian started buying 50 rupees (USD 80 cents) worth of milk/eggs/notebooks/pens instead of cigarette, tobacco and alcohol tomorrow, or just saved that up for later, the quality of life will start rising for sure. That fifty rupees, which is what an average person spends a day, makes a difference.

frequentnapper 6y ago
Most likely the price of milk/eggs/notebook would go up if like you say vast majority of those people could start to afford it.
- radegast 6y ago
  Do you know why there are left and right-wing economists? Because economics is not a science. So yeah, "most likely" is just a wild guess. My guess is that if the price of milk/eggs/notebooks increases, it will drive more people to get cows/chickens/start creating notebooks, thus lowering the price. Hey, its economics, you can say whatever.
- mandeepj 6y ago
  A lot of it goes into waste also
- mrmuagi 6y ago
  I think this speaks to the fact that essential items supply/demand is skewed by purchase of cigarettes then? You can't really survive off of cigarettes, I'd imagine.