Smoking and Society
Tollison, Robert
chapter about the evolution and use of a device called "the power meter." (A real device, invented by Nixon, with blinking lights and an antenna.) And she simply fumbles some ideas. A parody of the...
...But I am reviewing what was done, not what should have been done...
...But anyone should be allowed to smoke, however bad it is for him, as long as he does not harm non-consenting bystanders...
...She always figured out that, if I saved the daily expenditure on cigarettes or whatever, I would be a millionaire in no time...
...Surely the owner knows best what his customers want...
...The acknowledgement, however, is coy and furtive...
...PL P.O...
...Overeaters...
...On the other hand, smoking seems to-tally contra-indicated in theaters, hospitals, schools, and wherever there are major fire hazards...
...Tobacco advertising is a rather silly issue—the belief that advertising causes smoking is unwarranted...
...The revenue now got by taxing tobacco could readily be got by taxing some-thing else...
...People who refuse to do exercise...
...Overeating, drinking, or becoming a zealot are obvious possibilities...
...The book would have gained if both sides of the controversy had been represented...
...We have to accept many of each other's minor peculiarities as long as they cannot be shown to harm third persons...
...Post Style section and Washingtonian magazine starts out strong...
...However, under normal circumstances, smoking is no more than a nuisance for the non-smoker...
...And who wants the government to sit at his table...
...Incidentally, the economists in this volume, who stress the revenue derived from taxes on tobacco and the employment the industry provides, suffer from an analogous misapprehension...
...Others ponderously state the obvious...
...Yo, I need another two hundred thousand yards of 'crete...
...That's the way to make a profit...
...Sex (let alone childbirth) is more hazardous still...
...Some are quite sensible...
...Employers should be allowed to negotiate with their employees about on-the-job smoking, just as they negotiate about wages and other working conditions...
...The alternative to bad was always good—never worse...
...Still, so are many other taxes...
...People smoke pot, which is not advertised...
...Wherein does "support" differ from "assistance...
...but even the interesting essays, such as those of Peter Berger and James Buchanan, do not tell much that is original or profound...
...Airlines, for similar reasons, will separate smokers from non-smokers, as railroads have always done...
...The contributors to this study maintain that both the environment and the economy have suffered from those years of bureaucratic management...
...In most private occasions and places, accommodations can be made to satisJames M. Buchanan and Robert B. Tollison, Editors The Theory of Public Choice II "The challenge of the 1980s lies in constitutional reform...
...Box 1104 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 1986 47...
...As for public buildings, smoking is not a serious issue since most of them are airy enough...
...cloth $30.00/paper $14.95 John Baden and Richard L. Stroup, Editors Bureaucracy vs...
...The lead is: "Smithfield DeWitt is waiting...
...SMOKING AND SOCIETY: TOWARD A MORE BALANCED ASSESSMENT Edited by Robert Tollison/Lexington Books/$34.95 Ernest van den Haag Should we have government regulation of smoking...
...It never occurred to her that I would spend the money in some other—possibly worse—way...
...James Buchanan Using public choice theory based on economics, the authors discuss voting, tax policy, government regulation, redistribution of wealth, and international negotiation as they seek a new approach to government, one more responsive to and reflective of the individual...
...No wonder, since "the assistance and sup-port of representatives of a number of tobacco companies" is acknowledged...
...We must develop, or regain, the same tolerance for smoking as we have for driving, drinking (not the combination), and cosmetics...
...But where it does become an issue, the local authority should be allowed to decide...
...The contributions themselves vary...
...Should smokers be made to pay, through taxes, for the extra hospitalization cost they cause—which is usually borne by the taxpayers...
...Smoking has not been shown so to harm...
...The extra burden on smokers would certainly be unfair...
...Fanatics often are a greater nuisance than anything they are fanatic about...
...Why of "representatives of a number of tobacco companies" and not of the companies themselves...
...And why are these not listed...
...They examine the regulation of coal, water, timber, natural gas, and grazing land, and outline a new policy which would force bureaucratic agencies to meet standards of economic efficiency which would satisfy environmentalists, taxpayers, and business interests...
...It might be better if you reached for a cigarette next time you are tempted by sex...
...People will drink and smoke whether it is advertised or not...
...And people who no longer buy tobacco, my mother to the contrary notwithstanding, would buy something else...
...It would keep bureaucrats busy, though not necessarily out of mischief...
...Environment The Environmental Costs of Bureaucratic Governance In an effort to safeguard America's natural resources from depletion by private interests, their regulation was entrusted to government agencies...
...A parody of the power-personality pro-files that appear in the Washington The major achievement of this book is to make an intriguing subject altogether boring...
...her children...
...Can our society reform itself by imposing fiscal restraints on government's power to tax, and, by inference, on its power to spend monies for governmental purposes, including transfers to those per-sons and groups who do not pay taxes but who hold rights to the franchise...
...Still, occasionally interesting data are presented...
...Although Hans J. Eysenck, in his compendious summary of the data, argues that there is no definitive proof (he makes a good case), I remain convinced that smoking increases the risk of disease to the smoker...
...Further, in a free society, one should be allowed to persuade people to do what others think is bad for them, be that smoking, voting for Democrats, or jogging...
...cloth $15.00 The University of Michigan Press Dept...
...But a few grafs later Smithfield DeWitt is picking his nose...
...We cannot prohibit everything that annoys anyone...
...People, including the government, may campaign against smoking if they think it is bad, or if they don't like it...
...Producing it need not employ fewer people than now are employed by the tobacco industry.fy everyone's interests, although, by definition, such accommodations will not satisfy zealots bound on saving the world from itself...
...Some are outright silly...
...The argument of the non-smoker—"you'd be so much better off if you stopped"--reminds me of my mother's argument against the minor vices of Ernest van den Haag is the John M Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University...
...The only point of advertising is to advance one brand over another...
...Yet any restaurant will find it in its best interest to prohibit or permit smoking, or to separate smokers from non-smokers, whichever serves its customers best...
...How about drinkers...
...Similarly, the anti-smoker does not believe that the smoker might replace smoking with something worse and not, as he fondly hopes, with nothing, or something better...
...I don't see the need for government intervention in any of these matters...
...No less can be said for drinking (which far more increases the risks—let alone the nuisance—to non-drinkers), or for driving, or keeping pets...
...They are all on the side of smoking, though...
...What kind of "assistance...
Vol. 19 • October 1986 • No. 10
