"Still, the federal government, along with several states, now sues tobacco manufacturers to "recoup" costs spent on health care. Never mind that many economists argue that because smokers die sooner than they otherwise would, the taxpayer actually saves money otherwise spent on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. W. Kip Viscusi, a Duke University economist, calculated the societal costs of smoking (medical care, sick leave, life insurance, fire, secondhand smoke, lost taxes on earnings) against societal benefits (nursing home savings, pension, and Social Security saving, excise tax paid). The net result? We gain 58 cents on every pack of cigarettes smoked." ..........
From Larry Elder's The Ten Things You Can't Say In America...