> Presumably COVID also saves the government money, then? It most certainly does. The retort your parent made is for those who make the argument that a tax is

> Presumably COVID also saves the government money, then? It most certainly does. The retort your parent made is for those who make the argument that a tax is necessary because X (smoking, in this case) costs the country economically. If you want to make the purely _economic_ argument, it's a benefit to the bottom line.