In article ,
says...

Have you ever seen a heavy smoker die in a hospital? They linger on and
all the while they just want another smoke. It's really sad. Only remedy
is morphine which might have been the safer drug all along except it's
not "cool" to be a morphine addict.

Yes I have. My grandmother wanted a smoke and a beer in her
last go-round in the hospital. My regret is that I did not
supply either of them. Morphine use btw is quite common - pain
management has no regard for coolness or not.

Also if someone dies in their 50s of tobacco related causes, how have
they subsidized the system? They may have been productive taxpayers into
their early 70s albeit at pretty low levels since the weathy tend not to
die this way.

Folks put into social services when they are young, and take out
when they are old. I am paying for the SS of the older
folks right now. If none of them had quit, there would be more
of them alive right now, and I would be taxed more heavily. If
I took up a two pack a day habit, I would die before collecting
the amount that a non-smoker would. These are simple actuarial
numbers, any insurance agent knows this. It's not really
a subsidy.

Same with pensions. They bet you won't live long enough to
collect any money. I try to prove them wrong!
FWIW, at one time a few years ago, the average length of
time that a former employee of a certain large blue company
collected pension benefits was so short it was measured in
terms of months!

Jim

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