4 ms·
Ah well sure but when the smoking rates drop low enough, smoking related healthcare costs greatly exceed the cigarette tax receipts. NZ is a small country and n
by Gatsky 4y ago
Ah well sure but when the smoking rates drop low enough, smoking related healthcare costs greatly exceed the cigarette tax receipts. NZ is a small country and needs to contain the costs of its socialised healthcare. Is there a fundamental ‘right to give money to Tobacco companies’? Buying cigarettes is banned, smoking isn’t.
- arghnoname 4y agoI'm not a utilitarian because I think there are many things that we should do that can't be justified with a straight-forward look at the bottom line. Judging things this way can end with things that are pretty ethically dubious, e.g., forced abortion for fetuses with condition X, where X may be various levels of impairment whereby the resulting human is not profitable.
- Gatsky 4y agoAgreed, but the OP is obviously unconvinced by the moral observation that Big Tobacco hack people’s brains for profit while externalising the costs to society.
- petre 4y agoIs one allowed to plant their own tobacco if they're inclined to do so? What about other tobacco products like rolling tobacco? Is that banned from sale as well?
- Gatsky 4y agoThe bill says that sale of smoked tobacco products will be prohibited if the recipient was born after 2009-01-01. Just giving them a smoked tobacco product is also illegal if it occurs in a public place.