At 2:15 PM -0400 7/17/01, George@Orwellian.Org wrote:

<SNERK>

MSNBC reports Philip Morris has advised the Czech government, in writing, that they would save millions in retirement benefits if they promoted more smoking.

Philip Morris responded to a request for comment by saying, "It was just an economic study."

U.S. companies are just trying to be helpful. ;-)

And truthful. I've been telling people this at parties for many years: since most smokers are productive up until the time they develop lung cancer (maybe more so, due to the nicotine high), and because they typically develop lung cancer after their most productive years but before their declining years, smoking should be REQUIRED. The fact that lung cancer typically is not expensive to treat is a plus. Press reports of the above story are, as usual, missing the essential truth of the point and are focusing on the "callousness" of the Giant Corporations. --Tim May -- Timothy C. May tcmay@got.net Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns