You Are Too Stupid to Make The Correct Choice

[GURPS]

Here [New York City] bureaucrats say tobacco must be sold for above minimum floor price. Why? Because anti-tobacco crusader Kurt Ribisl told the Center for Disease Control "very cheap products should no longer be available."​

Stossel and Ribisl had the following exchange about his role in the rise of tobacco prices in New York City:

RIBISL: It deters children from starting smoking.

STOSSEL: You suggest this at the CDC; New York says "Ah! Good idea!"

RIBISL: Well, it’s also being considered very seriously in a number of jurisdictions in California.

STOSSEL: Why do you get to decide?

RIBISL: No, I’m not deciding, I’m a person who studies these policies. I’ll let the policy-makers decide.

STOSSEL: Why do the politicians get to decide?

RIBISL: Cigarettes are the most lethal product ever introduced. ... People still have the ability to buy it if they so choose.

STOSSEL: Just not poor people.

RIBISL: We see much higher smoking rates among poor people, and so we need policies that are gonna reduce tobacco use among poor people.

STOSSEL: They choose it – and the right to make your own choices is important.

RIBISL: People are still figuring out ways to afford it. It’s not to the point where no one who’s poor is smoking. Do you know that we have over twenty tobacco retailers for every McDonald’s in the U.S.?

STOSSEL: It must be because people want that. What if you run a tobacco store? You’re just screwing them.

RIBISL: I want to see a transition toward thinking more about healthy food and beverage because that’s gonna be a future making money.​

https://www.dailywire.com/news/25598/watch-reasontvs-john-stossel-new-york-authorities-frank-camp

Fascism: is a religion of the State, it assumes the organic unity of the body politic and longs for a national leader attuned to the will of the people. it is totalitarian in that it views everything as political and holds that any action by the state is justified to achieve the common good. it takes responsibility for all aspects of life, including our health and well-being, and seeks to impose uniformity of thought and action, wither by force or through regulation and social pressure. Everything, including economy and religion, must be aligned with its objectives. any rival identity is part of the "problem" and therefore defined as the enemy.

 

[Yooper]

It seems to me that this is part of a much larger problem. I agree entirely with Stossel, BUT....

The "but" (pardon the pun) is that if we make government our health care provider then it has every right to mitigate costs. Since there's no argument that there are significant long-term health care costs as a result of smoking, Government is well within its rights to do whatever it sees fit to do to minimize costs. THAT'S WHY WE DON'T WANT GOVERNMENT IN THE HEALTH INSURANCE GAME; it's the start of a very slippery slope that increasingly results in our lives being ever more controlled by an unsympathetic monopoly that can enforce its dictates at the end of the barrel of the gun (metaphorically and literally). Today smoking, tomorrow whatever (to include fad health trend du jour).

Much better is the private market. That people cannot see this remains one of the most astounding aspects of social engagement/societal construction. That so many people find serfdom appealing is astounding (and that's where it's going; at a minimum).

-- End of line.

 

[This_person]

...if we make government our health care provider then it has every right to mitigate costs.

Agree, as you say, that the government should not be involved in day-to-day health care costs/decisions.

 

[transporter]

It seems to me that this is part of a much larger problem. I agree entirely with Stossel, BUT....

The "but" (pardon the pun) is that if we make government our health care provider then it has every right to mitigate costs. Since there's no argument that there are significant long-term health care costs as a result of smoking, Government is well within its rights to do whatever it sees fit to do to minimize costs. THAT'S WHY WE DON'T WANT GOVERNMENT IN THE HEALTH INSURANCE GAME; it's the start of a very slippery slope that increasingly results in our lives being ever more controlled by an unsympathetic monopoly that can enforce its dictates at the end of the barrel of the gun (metaphorically and literally). Today smoking, tomorrow whatever (to include fad health trend du jour).

Much better is the private market. That people cannot see this remains one of the most astounding aspects of social engagement/societal construction. That so many people find serfdom appealing is astounding (and that's where it's going; at a minimum).

-- End of line.

Did you read what GURPS posted or are you just making an unrelated rant.

Ribisl is wrong on almost every statement he makes. "Children" can't buy cigarettes...just like they can't buy beer...so higher prices have no impact on child usage.

Cigarettes are even close to the "most lethal product ever introduced". (this is a statement in the category our incompetent President would make) Guns are far more lethal, most of the insecticides sold at Lowes are far more lethal, sleeping pills are far more lethal.

He is probably right about the poor and smoking...but money isn't what has changed attitudes about smoking over the years...education has.

His comment about the ratio of tobacco retailers to McDonald's is stupid (but great for this board). The proper ratio would be tobacco retailers to fast food establishments.

As for gov't vs private market...the assumption that one is inherently better than the other is "misguided" at best. Ask the person who was denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition how the private market helped them. Ask the person who needed to replace their Epipen how the private market helped.

One method is not right and the other wrong. The combination of an open market with strict oversight (as it relates to healthcare) is most likely the best option. But we don't have a legislative, executive or judicial branch that seems to give much of a damn about you and I.

 

[Peepaw95]

It seems to me that this is part of a much larger problem. I agree entirely with Stossel, BUT....

The "but" (pardon the pun) is that if we make government our health care provider then it has every right to mitigate costs. Since there's no argument that there are significant long-term health care costs as a result of smoking, Government is well within its rights to do whatever it sees fit to do to minimize costs. THAT'S WHY WE DON'T WANT GOVERNMENT IN THE HEALTH INSURANCE GAME; it's the start of a very slippery slope that increasingly results in our lives being ever more controlled by an unsympathetic monopoly that can enforce its dictates at the end of the barrel of the gun (metaphorically and literally). Today smoking, tomorrow whatever (to include fad health trend du jour).

Much better is the private market. That people cannot see this remains one of the most astounding aspects of social engagement/societal construction. That so many people find serfdom appealing is astounding (and that's where it's going; at a minimum).

-- End of line.

I believe what you are missing is the fact that people who want government insurance are the people who do not want to pay for it. Private insurance companies are not going to insure these people for free so government coverage (with us paying for the freeloaders) is the only way they will get coverage.

 

[MiddleGround]

Did you read what GURPS posted or are you just making an unrelated rant.

Ribisl is wrong on almost every statement he makes. "Children" can't buy cigarettes...just like they can't buy beer...so higher prices have no impact on child usage.

Cigarettes are even close to the "most lethal product ever introduced". (this is a statement in the category our incompetent President would make) Guns are far more lethal, most of the insecticides sold at Lowes are far more lethal, sleeping pills are far more lethal.

He is probably right about the poor and smoking...but money isn't what has changed attitudes about smoking over the years...education has.

His comment about the ratio of tobacco retailers to McDonald's is stupid (but great for this board). The proper ratio would be tobacco retailers to fast food establishments.

As for gov't vs private market...the assumption that one is inherently better than the other is "misguided" at best. Ask the person who was denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition how the private market helped them. Ask the person who needed to replace their Epipen how the private market helped.

One method is not right and the other wrong. The combination of an open market with strict oversight (as it relates to healthcare) is most likely the best option. But we don't have a legislative, executive or judicial branch that seems to give much of a damn about you and I.

There is just so much wrong in this I don't even know where to start.

 

[GURPS]

Guns are far more lethal, most of the insecticides sold at Lowes are far more lethal .....

hey you whiny bitch ........ Guns are supposed to be lethal as is insecticide


do you ever think before you post ?

 

[Sapidus]

hey you whiny bitch ........ Guns are supposed to be lethal as is insecticide


do you ever think before you post ?

Calm down before you have a heart attack.


"Cigarettes are the most lethal product ever introduced" It was not quantified as that aren't intended to harm people. It was a stupid thing to say.

Why are you so angry when someone points out something idiotic in one of your posts? You should be used to it by now

 

[Yooper]

Did you read what GURPS posted or are you just making an unrelated rant.

Your sentence should have ended with a question mark and not a period.

But to your point, yes, I did.

Stossel is making the greater point (using buying cigarettes as the jump off point) that it is a person's right to choose and not the government's "right" to force a "choice" on a person.

Thank you for your "question." Or was it a rant?

-- End of line

 

[MiddleGround]

Stossel is making the greater point (using buying cigarettes as the jump off point) that it is a person's right to choose and not the government's "right" to force a "choice" on a person.

From what I see of transporter's and Sapidus' posts on here. They believe precisely that government has the right to make choices for the people. But, that is just my observation based on what they post here.

 

[somdwatch]

Yep the All Knowing transporter and sapidus. The incompetent lefties of somd.com!

I miss the ignore button!

 

[MiddleGround]

Yep the All Knowing transporter and sapidus. The incompetent lefties of somd.com!

I dont like either of these two however, it's not like there aren't some incompetent righties here either.

 

[GURPS]

Calm down before you have a heart attack.

don't flatter yourself ...

"Cigarettes are the most lethal product ever introduced" It was not quantified as that aren't intended to harm people. It was a stupid thing to say.

Why are you so angry when someone points out something idiotic in one of your posts? You should be used to it by now

you too ####ing funny .... Trans wasn't even speaking to me silly rabbit let lone anything I Wrote

 

[GURPS]

I miss Karma !

:fixed:

 

[PsyOps]

Did you read what GURPS posted or are you just making an unrelated rant.

Nope! We all leave that up to you.

 

[Hijinx]

From what I see of transporter's and Sapidus' posts on here. They believe precisely that government has the right to make choices for the people. But, that is just my observation based on what they post here.

She/he/it says kids cannot buy cigarettes LMAO
They can't buy beer, liquor, heroin ,or marijuana,or methamphetamines either.
I suppose they sh1t it.

 

[Gilligan]

Nope! We all leave that up to you.

Troofs