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NEWS July 19th 2001
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| ‘Smoking is good for your [economy’s] health’ According to a new report released this week by consulting firm Arthur D Little International, smoking may in fact be beneficial to the economy, as smokers who die young use less public services than they would if they lived past retirement, needing costly pensions, housing and health care which, after all, are merely wasted on such non-productive individuals. The consultants are said to be working on a wider-ranging report on the general economic implications of various activities – they are expected to conclude that economic efficiency in the construction industry could be increased by abolishing health and safety regulations, as it is cheaper to replace dead workers than pay for a safe working environment, that children failing at school by the age of eleven should be sent straight to work in manual jobs in order not to waste money on expensive education that brings no economic benefits, and that the balance of payments would be boosted by stopping all state pensions, allowing those who would have claimed them to starve to death, and investing the spare cash in arms exports. No, Corporate Watch hasn’t gone completely off the rails. The first report has actually been released – it was presented to the Czech government by tobacco firm Philip Morris last week (okay, so we made the rest up). The Arthur D Little report claims that smoking saved the Czech government £147m in 1997 by killing people before they retired. As Czech public health campaigner Eva Kralikova pointed out, ‘Following that logic, the best recommendation to governments would be to kill all people on the day of their retirement.’ The report appears to be part of a bid to persuade the Czech government to ‘see the big picture’ – claiming that smoking is actually a good thing on an economic level (the isolated individuals who die from it are just a statistical anomaly) so any moves to control smoking – taxation, health warnings, advertising restrictions etc. – are missing the economic point. Furhter proof, if such were needed, of the dangers of the twilight topsy-turvy world inhabited by large corporations, in which economic theory is king, human beings exist only as marketing targets and pipers (or consultants) play the tune that’s ordered, even if it’s the Dead March. We’ll leave the last word on the subject to Mr Brian D Finch, who, in a letter to the Guardian after the release of the report, wrote, ‘This line of "reasoning" is somewhat undermined by news emerging from Massachussets General Hospital of a study which has uncovered a mechanism whereby smoking can trigger premature ovarian failure, or early menopause. Thus, while it is undeniable that the smoking of cigarettes reduces the number of extant former taxpayers, it appears possible that it may also limit the production of new ones.’ |