At 11:20 PM -0700 7/10/97, Bill Frantz wrote:
At 9:29 AM -0700 7/10/97, Tim May wrote:
(Caveat: My personal and libertarian view is that lawsuits against cigarette companies are wrong and should not be supported in a free society. And lawsuits by various states to "recover health care costs" are especially bogus. By this logic, McDonald's could be sued by California because California paid out more health care benefits to meat-eaters than it did to vegetarians. Utterly bogus.)
It is especially bogus since it is not clear that the government isn't a net winner between reduced social security and pension payments, and the extra income from tobacco taxes.
And of course the government has been subsidizing tobacco growing for the last half century (at least). Even non-libertarians see the absurdity in all this. (But these same friends and family will cheerfully admit that "there ought to be a law" banning tobacco. Especially some of those who smoke...they want the government to pass a law, wave a magic wand, and cure their smoking habit.) The only consistent, reasonable, just solution is basically the libertarian one (note that I am not using the word Libertarian). Namely: Individual responsibility, free choice, a drastically reduced set of laws, and end to all subsidies of any and all products, reduced tariffs, and an end to social engineering through tax and tariff policies and incentives/disincentives to businesses. There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."