In the specific case of smokers, it doesn't actually increase health costs. Smokers die younger and often have a relatively short illness before they die. Compa

In the specific case of smokers, it doesn't actually increase health costs. Smokers die younger and often have a relatively short illness before they die. Compare this to someone who lives 95 and requires care in a care-home it's "cheap". You also save on things like pension costs because you don't pay them to dead folk, and income from taxes. I'm not entirely sure about the numbers on things like obesity, drug use, etc. off-hand. I agree with you as a matter of principle, so not that it really matters, but people sometimes say "smokers should pay the cost they inflict on society themselves!" and turns out they're not actually inflicting the huge costs people imagine they do.