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Old 26-04-2008, 01:01 PM   #24 (permalink)
B.A.Ware
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoffrey Collier View Post

(3) What does it cost to keep them on on Social Security whilst ill? (4) What is the Tax and N.I, loss to the Exchequer whilst they are ill? (5) What other benefits do they receive whilst ill: Income Support, rate-rebate, free school lunches for their children, etc.? I fear that you have a very narrow view of 'economic cost'.
According to statistics your average smoker dies ten years prematurely therefore they don't claim pension for ten years, they don't use hospitals, doctors, dentists or opticians for ten years, they don't claim any benefits for ten years including the heating allowance, they also don't use any energy or produce any CO2 for ten years helping counter global warming so not only are us smokers smoking for England we are smoking for the world

As for free school lunches for their children the majority of smoking related illnesses happen to smokers later in life so i fear it is yourself who has the very narrow view

And if you really want to go down this road try doing some research.

Quote:
Healthy people cost taxpayers more in medical bills over their lifetimes than smokers or the obese, a new study has found.

Because they tend to live longer, the savings that they make the state in youth and middle age are wiped out by the high cost of dealing with lingering diseases of old age like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
By contrast smokers - who pour millions extra into government coffers by purchasing cigarettes - cost the state the least because they tend to die younger.

According to the research, a person of normal weight costs on average £210,000 over their lifetime, a smoker just £165,000 and an obese person £187,000.

The study, led by Pieter van Baal at the Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and Environment, found: “The underlying mechanism is that there is a substitution of inexpensive, lethal diseases to wards less lethal, and therefore more costly diseases.”
Healthy people place biggest burden on state - Telegraph
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