Tim Worstall

5 responses so far ↓

• 1 bloke in spain // Dec 3, 2012 at 11:31 am

  Bloody hell Tim!
  You just caught on? I was saying that 30 years ago.

  The trick is, now, not to let the government enjoy the taxes.

• 2 MakajazMonkee // Dec 3, 2012 at 12:57 pm

  My sister’s was always telling me this as reverse psychology to get me to stop smoking. “You smokers help us in the NHS as you pay loads of tax and die relatively quickly and cheaply”..Never worked mind you,

• 3 Jim // Dec 3, 2012 at 3:26 pm

  My old family doctor (an old school, home visits at all times of day and night type chap) said that the most effective line he could ever come out with to get a person to give up smoking was to point out how much pension the government was going to save when they died young.

• 4 Ralph Musgrave // Dec 3, 2012 at 5:48 pm

  Bloke in Spain:

  Sir Humphrey Appleby of Yes Minister fame made that point a long time ago – possibly before you did.

• 5 HJ // Dec 11, 2012 at 10:39 pm

  And as I pointed out at the ASI, Tim, the paper says nothing of the sort.

  For a start, it looks only at the effect of a CHANGE in tobacco taxes in the US. It does not look at overall costs vs savings – just the effect of an increase (which it concludes would save the government money until 2060, costing more only thereafter). The study is peculiar to the USA (where tobacco taxes are different and so is medical funding).

  What’s more, it doesn’t look at alcohol at all.

Leave a Comment