What would happen if Americans stopped smoking?

[lantaur]

Would end guys saying, "If she smokes, she f*cks." (Well, at least that's what some guys I know used to say.)

 

[Brad Guire]

Never gonna happen. Smokes and liquor are the last legal drugs we have, and they account for a shirtload of money floating around this country.

 

[The Big Ragu]

It would have immediate economic repercussions.
The timing of it right now would be awful.
But if the economic climate were different, while it would still have a huge negative effect, it would eventually be weatherable.

In terms of our economy, why would getting rid of something that conservatively costs our economy more than $100 billion annually in medical costs be awful timing wise?

Because the economy (states combined and federal) would likely lose more than $100 billion in tax revenue from the per-pack taxes charged and income taxes the cigarette companies (or their parent companies) pay.
Plus the tens of thousands people involved in the manufacture of cigarettes (from farm employees to the factories where the cigarettes are made to delivery people) would suddenly become unemployed.

You are way overestimating those economic benefits. Every effort to do some kind of welfare analysis that I have seen has been flawed, mostly because it is difficult to estimate all the cost -- from second hand smoke costs to days off from work by smokers to how much more in medical costs smokers incur over their lifetime. But there is really no doubt that tobacco use causes a fairly significant net economic loss, not just in the U.S., but worldwide.

 

[Ace]

Would end guys saying, "If she smokes, she f*cks." (Well, at least that's what some guys I know used to say.)

I said that one time as a youth in a lunch room and a large, crew-cut truck driver with a 16-year-old daughter who smoked took exception to that.

I haven't had the urge to smoke -- or say that again -- since.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Would end guys saying, "If she smokes, she f*cks." (Well, at least that's what some guys I know used to say.)

I said that one time as a youth in a lunch room and a large, crew-cut truck driver with a 16-year-old daughter who smoked took exception to that.

I haven't had the urge to smoke -- or say that again -- since.

The problem was that his daughter never took exception.

 

[trifectarich]

Why do smokers think that cigarette butts are a license to litter? You think that crap is organic material like a banana peel or something?

That's one of my pet peeves. Especially in the summer drought season when you see highway medians burned out from a smoker tossing a butt from his car.

This has always ticked me off. And then three months ago, when I went shopping for a new car, I was shocked to discover that many new models no longer have ashtrays. I test drove models from four different automakers and there wasn't an ash tray in any of them. I didn't know this was the case. Not that this is an excuse . . .

 

[EStreetJoe]

Allow me to try answering Rick's and Ragu's responses to my post in one swoop.

I am a non-smoker. I can't stand being around people when they're smoking, I hate the smell. However there is the reality that whenever politicians are looking for a quick fix for revenue they raise the sin taxes (cigarettes, alcohol). If everyone stopped smoking, that option would be eliminated. Also, to play devil's advocate, if people didn't spend money on cigarettes, who's to say they'd spend it on something else? Given the economy they'd likely save the money to pay off other bills. Maybe I was being sarcastic or exaggerating the employment aspect.
I was also looking at the costs from a purely governmental perspective as opposed to the entire economy. Smokers make money for the insurance industry as they can charge smokers higher premiums. As long as the smoker has health insurance the hospital or doctors are still making money, on the other hand, if they're uninsured, the medical providers will lose money hand-over-fist. I'm not an economist but how do you put a dollar amount on lost productivity due to sick days - don't other employees have to pick up the slack?

 

[RickStain]

If people save the money to pay off other bills, the companies that they owed those bills to get the money. It all goes somewhere.

The key to understanding economics is to stop thinking of it in terms of "money." Money represents stuff and time. The economy grows when we have more people spending time doing productive things, when we find ways to make them more productive, and when we have more natural resources.

Using a percentage of our time and stuff to create popular, self-administered poison is only a negative. When it stops, we'll use that same time and stuff to do something more useful.

 

[Point of Order]

Would end guys saying, "If she smokes, she f*cks." (Well, at least that's what some guys I know used to say.)

I said that one time as a youth in a lunch room and a large, crew-cut truck driver with a 16-year-old daughter who smoked took exception to that.

I haven't had the urge to smoke -- or say that again -- since.

The problem was that his daughter never took exception.

Very nice!

 

[imjustagirl]

I put my cigarette butts in a Pepsi can that sits in my cupholder. I rotate them out as needed.

 

[SpeedTchr]

What the heck would we do after our eight seconds of connubial bliss?

 

[TrooperBari]

Came across this on Planet Money and thought it'd fit in well here. Bloomberg looks at why China won't stop smoking anytime soon:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-20/china-endorsing-tobacco-in-schools-adds-to-10-trillion-gdp-cost.html

In dozens of rural villages in China's western provinces, one of the first things primary school kids learn is what made their education possible: tobacco.

"On the gates of these schools, you'll see slogans that say 'Genius comes from hard work -- Tobacco helps you become talented,'" said Xu Guihua, secretary general of the privately funded lobby group Chinese Association on Tobacco Control. The schools are sponsored by local units of China's government-owned monopoly cigarette maker. "They are pinning their hopes on young people taking up smoking."