The 1998 out-of-court settlements of litigation by the states against
the cigarette industry totaled $243 billion, making it the largest
payoff ever in our civil justice system. Two key questions drove the
lawsuits and the attendant settlement: Do smokers understand the risks
of smoking? And does smoking impose net financial costs on the states?
With Smoke-Filled Rooms,W. Kip Viscusi provides unexpected answers to
these questions, drawing on an impressive range of data on several
topics central to the smoking policy debate. Based on surveys of
smokers in the United States and Spain, for instance, he demonstrates
that smokers actually overestimate the dangers of smoking, indicating
that they are well aware of the risks involved in their choice to
smoke. And while smoking does increase medical costs to the states,
Viscusi finds that these costs are more than financially balanced by
the premature mortality of smokers, which reduces their demands on
state pension and health programs, so that, on average, smoking either
pays for itself or generates revenues for the states. Viscusi's
eye-opening assessment of the tobacco lawsuits also includes policy
recommendations that could frame these debates in a more productive
way, such as his suggestion that the FDA should develop a rating
system for cigarettes and other tobacco products based on their
relative safety, thus providing an incentive for tobacco manufacturers
to compete among themselves to produce safer cigarettes. Viscusi's
hard look at the facts of smoking and its costs runs against
conventional thinking. But it is also necessary for an informed and
realistic debate about the legal, financial, and social consequences
of the tobacco lawsuits. People making $50,000 or more pay .08 percent
of their income in cigarette taxes, but people with incomes of less
than $10,000 pay 1.62 percenttwenty times as much. The maintenance
crew at the Capitol will bear more of the "sin tax" levied on
cigarettes than will members of Congress who voted to boost it.
Cigarettes are not a financial drain to the U.S. In fact, they are
self-financing, as a consequence of smokers' premature mortality. The
general public estimates that 47 out of 100 smokers will die from lung
cancer because they smoke. Smokers believe that 40 out of 100 will die
of the disease. Scientists estimate the actual number of 100 smokers
who will die from lung cancer to be between 7 and 13.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780226857480
Publisert
2018
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
University of Chicago Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter