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I know there are similar findings about e.g. smoking - you die younger and more quickly and so spare socialized healthcare lots of spending. Probably true for o

I know there are similar findings about e.g. smoking - you die younger and more quickly and so spare socialized healthcare lots of spending. Probably true for obesity, drinking, drug use, etc. From a purely economic standpoint, living to be 100 with various chronic conditions of the kind that come with age (plus drawing social security) is probably the most draining way to live. I don't mean to say it's bad, just that it shows how dumb the thinly veiled telling people how to live in the name of their burden on the healthcare system argument is. If that was really what we cared about the government should be encouraging us all to live fast and die young. But it's about control, not anything else.

smt88 3y ago
This comment is just so ignorant of actual public health that it doesn't feel worthwhile to respond to. When people die young, they don't pay back the enormous amounts of money that was spent on raising and educating them. Smoking is an absolutely perfect example of something that costs society absolutely staggering amounts of money. Do you know how much it costs to treat someone who gets cancer from smoking? Or to treat someone with diabetes who was obese? Or to send someone to rehab for drug use? Any one of these things can easily cost society (government, insurance company, family, the individual themselves) millions of dollars. And the majority of the cost is almost never borne by the individual. If you give yourself cancer and have health insurance, all the other people with health insurance pay for your treatment. > just that it shows how dumb the thinly veiled telling people how to live in the name of their burden on the healthcare system argument is Instead of saying it's dumb, how about you actually explain it or provide examples? There is nothing anywhere that will tell you that letting people smoke would save society money. That's so unbelievably backwards that I can't believe I even read it.

smt88 3y ago

This comment is just so ignorant of actual public health that it doesn't feel worthwhile to respond to. When people die young, they don't pay back the enormous amounts of money that was spent on raising and educating them. Smoking is an absolutely perfect example of something that costs society absolutely staggering amounts of money. Do you know how much it costs to treat someone who gets cancer from smoking? Or to treat someone with diabetes who was obese? Or to send someone to rehab for drug use? Any one of these things can easily cost society (government, insurance company, family, the individual themselves) millions of dollars. And the majority of the cost is almost never borne by the individual. If you give yourself cancer and have health insurance, all the other people with health insurance pay for your treatment. > just that it shows how dumb the thinly veiled telling people how to live in the name of their burden on the healthcare system argument is Instead of saying it's dumb, how about you actually explain it or provide examples? There is nothing anywhere that will tell you that letting people smoke would save society money. That's so unbelievably backwards that I can't believe I even read it.