* Lots of people smoke in Egypt, Greece, and France, but none of those countries is a trailblazing economy.* You're not thinking like an evolutionary biologist

* Lots of people smoke in Egypt, Greece, and France, but none of those countries is a trailblazing economy.* You're not thinking like an evolutionary biologist. Sure, poor societies smoke same as successful ones, but where are the largely non-smoking societies? (...and no, the US doesn't count, seeing as how the anti-smoking movement is only a couple decades old) I'm not saying that smoking is a cure-all (HA!). What I'm saying is that, in the past, smoking seems to have been better than not. What's interesting is that, now that life past 60 is a very real possibility for some societies, will smoking still remain advantageous. Here, I would agree with you, that the answer is probably no.