On the other hand, I don't take the health warnings particularly seriously. The antismoking campaign, a noxious alliance of government and corporations, was from the start a giant scam to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich. It was not the shareholders of Philip Morris or R.J. Reynolds who were fleeced. They know how to look after themselves, and they have not gone poor. It was ordinary smokers, many who earned very little, who were forced to turn over an ever-larger share of their income to the state.
Governments love sales taxes.
They are not as readily noticeable as taxes on income. And their targets are usually the poor, who are unlikely to protest as vehemently as the rich. More sinister was the role of the corporations. Anxious about the costs of providing their workforces with healthcare coverage, corporate managers launched a fierce campaign to compel their employees to lead healthy lives. It was not enough that they did not smoke in the workplace.