Re:Barely Half of 30-Year-Olds in the U.S. Earn More Than Th...
by pfranz on Friday December 09, 2016 @02:21AM
(#13137268)
The TLDR is: smoking and obesity cause you to die sooner with less total medical costs[1]. This is great for things like social security since you can pay in over your entire life but never collect.
The story I remember hearing (and couldn't find a specific citation) was that anti-smoking groups made up a bunch of big numbers about smokers' high medical costs to scaremonger. To fight back Phillip-Morris did a study and legitimately found that smokers died sooner and total costs were lower. Unfortunately, that's not something you really want to publicize, so anti-smoking people can keep making up scary numbers and cigarette companies can't really fight back.
The story I remember hearing (and couldn't find a specific citation) was that anti-smoking groups made up a bunch of big numbers about smokers' high medical costs to scaremonger. To fight back Phillip-Morris did a study and legitimately found that smokers died sooner and total costs were lower. Unfortunately, that's not something you really want to publicize, so anti-smoking people can keep making up scary numbers and cigarette companies can't really fight back.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.97488...