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Getting paid to stop smoking - controversy?

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As would I, R_A.

In an ideal world.

Oh snap

Really? That's your snappage? Your ideal world is one where the core decency of humanity is overlooked -- caring for those who cannot care for themselves? That's the point of redistrbuting wealth, isn't it?

 

Personally I'm happy to pay taxes because it's an evil that we all have to endure, and because I'm a fan of the "money can't buy you happiness" school of thought (although being 'comfortable' certainly relieves a lot of stress!). As far as I can see, the general consensus with this thread is that smokers generally pay their way. I did state in my first post that smokers should not be paid to give up, but I also mentioned that I haven't a clue what the OP is really on about.

 

etc, again. Too much tangential argument consumes me

Well presumably the taxes you pay go to your local council...but I may be wrong. Always how I imagined it but can't say I gave it that much thought.

 

But while we're at it. I don't drive. I doubt I ever will. Can the money that would go to road repair be used for my train fare instead? :p

 

Although I did raise one truth you can't refute James. Smoking is smelly.

Local council gets council tax fo' sho'. As for income tax, VAT, NI, customs &c, I'm not the guy to give you any sort of filteration figures. I'm sure certain councils get more funding from the gov. than others do for whatever reason...

 

Smoking is indeed smelly. I demand cherry tobacco become the norm!

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Don't the French have those? Or is it just coloured fags... I'm sure they have something special.

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We had flavored Cigarellos in the US, they tasted and smelled better than plain old Cigarettes....then flavored cigarette products were banned.

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jayseven: tl;dr - person take breath test, quits, gets vouchers (the girl on the news piece i saw got tescos vouchers) They then get a breath test every week to check up that they are still quitting.

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Hmm, getting paid to stop smoking is a daft idea. You'll already be saving money from quitting anyway, like Raining says in the original post. Maybe as a society we're far too money-orientated and we just don't care enough about ourselves. Somebody mentioned EMA in the earlier post. I can see (sorta) how its an incentive for somebody, but essentially you're dangling a carrot infront of them, waving cash in their faces. Maybe we should be thinking more about the benefits of stopping smoking, going into college, giving up drinking, etc, rather than just the "ooo, I can get a few extra quid out of it."

 

My brother is a smoker, and he moans so much about it being "impossible" for him to quit. Really, the fact is he just has very little willpower. If somebody told him he could get cash for quitting, I think he would do it in a shot. So, there you go.

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I think people get way too caught up in the 'taxpayer' argument. "I have to pay taxes to give to the smoking quitters" can you just shut up now?

Obviously we don't want taxes wasted on stuff like expenses etc, but everyone pays the same standard tax, it's a collective thing, and the next person is probably benefiting from tax money in different ways to another. I don't see the issue quite honestly. Just pay the god-damn tax bitches, and recognise it is benefitting society. When you break it down into the pennies that are going towards different things it's highly likely there will be stuff you're paying for that might not personally improve your life.

Edited by dwarf

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Yeah. My ex manager said a few years ago "I don't know why I pay so much tax. I never use the NHS its a waste of money." Of course not long after he broke his leg (and a year or two later he had a child). It amused me how naive that was, but then he was a bumbling bumblebrained Brummie.

 

Coloured fags? I've never heard you be so derogative!

 

i-am-smiling-gasin-trossen.jpg

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My mum lost the sight in her left eye from smoking >__>

caused a blood clot in the ocular nerve, then it burst

 

I shall get my revenge on cigarettes....eventually

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My mum lost the sight in her left eye from smoking >__>

caused a blood clot in the ocular nerve, then it burst

 

I shall get my revenge on cigarettes....eventually

 

aw martin that's awful :(

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Now, considering the consensus in this thread, I'll probably get ripped to pieces for saying this, but ...

 

I don't get the enormous hate against cigarettes. I mean as opposed to all the other shit people do that's not good for them. Cigarettes are nasty, I can definitely agree with that. But we humans do all sorts of stupid shit that's harmful to ourselves and others. We're not perfect, nor do we live in a perfect world. I'm not saying people doing shit stuff is okay, but we can't really go around hating everyone who's not Mr. Perfect. That's just silly.

 

I dunno, smoking might actually be worse than some of the other stuff people do. I'm no expert. On anything, really. But there's just so much hate in here. Me no like.

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I agree Danny, smoking is a choice and I doubt anyone making the choice is ignorant of the harmful effects. If someone wants to smoke their lungs into blackness, let them, it's not much different from drinking ones liver to death.

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Smokers don't bother me now they can't do it in public places. As long as they aren't harming others then they can happily smoke themselves to an early grave. It's their choice.

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I think it's just his over-exaggerated sense of humour. Although there is a strong link between class and smoking.

 

This...is an awful idea. It's up there with EMA and unemployment benefits in my eyes. Cigarettes should be outright banned.

 

Hello there Norman Tebbit?

 

No seriously, could you elaborate on this position? You're against JSA?

 

I quite like the smell of some cigarettes. It's certainly not as bad an odour as say, stale alcohol and sweat. Smoking doesn't bother me that much and banning them is just ridiculous. Paying people to quit though.....no. Never going to work practically for the reasons Dan Dare mentioned mainly, plus it is just far too money orientated. Rather insults the smokers in a way, suggesting they're all so pathetic they need money to kick the habit. I wouldn't be against free patches or something but money is just silly.

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If it helps someone to quit that couldn't do it otherwise then what's the problem?

If someone has done stats on it to show that the reduced burden on NHS/society is worth more than the cost of paying, then it's all cool?

 

Some get motivated by drugs, others by patches; why not help those that can only be helped by money?

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Yeah but then why only give a reward/money to smokers? Why not to alcohol or drugs addicts who quit, or even fat people who go on a diet and lose weight? They're all at a health risk, so I don't see why only smokers should get this reward?

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Yeah but then why only give a reward/money to smokers? Why not to alcohol or drugs addicts who quit, or even fat people who go on a diet and lose weight? They're all at a health risk, so I don't see why only smokers should get this reward?

 

You know I might be wrong but I'm sure there was an equally controversial scheme involving fatties :P

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Yeah but then why only give a reward/money to smokers? Why not to alcohol or drugs addicts who quit, or even fat people who go on a diet and lose weight? They're all at a health risk, so I don't see why only smokers should get this reward?

 

I have no problem with that either. If, for some, it fixes the problem then cool beans.

 

Largely I'd like to know that my tax is being used in the most frugal way, or failing that, the way that most improves life for someone. This could cover that.

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I have no problem with that either. If, for some, it fixes the problem then cool beans.

 

But then where do you stop?

 

And with fat people there would most likely be a weight threshold. So you would most likely get people just under that threshold gaining a few pounds before they diet in order to get money.

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Hello there Norman Tebbit?

 

No seriously, could you elaborate on this position? You're against JSA?

 

Really? I guess I can spell it out if you'd like...

 

I'm against the ridiculous JSA system we have in place - easily one of the most abused systems there is. The number of people I personally know who half-arsedly pretend to be looking for work but have actually no intention of working is close to 10. One of my friends is starting a funded dentistry course in September, but hasn't worked for the past year. I asked how he got by and he said he was on the dole. I then asked which job he was looking for to be going on with, to which he said "I'm not looking for one" (jobseeker, I think not), after which I asked how he proved he had bothered to look and he said "it's dead easy to show you've looked". He laughed; I didn't.

 

I quite like the smell of some cigarettes.

Well I think we can safely assume that the smoke has gone to your brain. :p As you've said before: No, seriously?

Edited by Sheikah

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As would I, R_A.

Really? That's your snappage? Your ideal world is one where the core decency of humanity is overlooked -- caring for those who cannot care for themselves? That's the point of redistrbuting wealth, isn't it?

 

Personally I'm happy to pay taxes because it's an evil that we all have to endure, and because I'm a fan of the "money can't buy you happiness" school of thought (although being 'comfortable' certainly relieves a lot of stress!). As far as I can see, the general consensus with this thread is that smokers generally pay their way. I did state in my first post that smokers should not be paid to give up, but I also mentioned that I haven't a clue what the OP is really on about.

 

etc, again. Too much tangential argument consumes me

 

Local council gets council tax fo' sho'. As for income tax, VAT, NI, customs &c, I'm not the guy to give you any sort of filteration figures. I'm sure certain councils get more funding from the gov. than others do for whatever reason...

 

Smoking is indeed smelly. I demand cherry tobacco become the norm!

 

Not relevant to the thread, but although friends and love are important, money absolutely buys happiness. Completely and utterly.

 

If I had billions of pounds, I wouldn't have to work, it would be piss easy to fulfil my dreams and I could do whatever I wanted, whenever without question, which I place considerably higher than "relieves stress"

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Now, considering the consensus in this thread, I'll probably get ripped to pieces for saying this, but ...

 

I don't get the enormous hate against cigarettes. I mean as opposed to all the other shit people do that's not good for them. Cigarettes are nasty, I can definitely agree with that. But we humans do all sorts of stupid shit that's harmful to ourselves and others. We're not perfect, nor do we live in a perfect world. I'm not saying people doing shit stuff is okay, but we can't really go around hating everyone who's not Mr. Perfect. That's just silly.

 

I dunno, smoking might actually be worse than some of the other stuff people do. I'm no expert. On anything, really. But there's just so much hate in here. Me no like.

 

I don't care what the fuck people do to themselves but smoking, more so than most other 'self-imposed bad things', second handly affects me (the smell, the smog in the streets etc). Its why it annoys me slightly more than people who go out and get drunk, which affects me less frequently.

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Smokers don't bother me now they can't do it in public places.

 

Except for the ones who don't listen. I feel like I'm chocking (and nearly actually do so) whenever I have to walk past somebody who is smoking, or is standing near me on while waiting for the train.

 

If they did it when it's just them around, then I wouldn't mind so much.

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Having said what I said earlier, I too feel like I'm choking when I get too much smoke around me, and some smokers just don't seem to care at all, smoking directly into your face. What's ridiculous about the smoking ban here in Denmark is that smoking is allowed in pubs with LESS than 40 sqm.

 

I don't get what was wrong with having specific areas for smoking. Smokers were happy and non-smokers were happy.

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Having said what I said earlier, I too feel like I'm choking when I get too much smoke around me, and some smokers just don't seem to care at all, smoking directly into your face. What's ridiculous about the smoking ban here in Denmark is that smoking is allowed in pubs with LESS than 40 sqm.

 

I don't get what was wrong with having specific areas for smoking. Smokers were happy and non-smokers were happy.

 

Wait....smaller pubs are the ones with smoking, while the larger places where non-smokers could get away from the smoke it's banned.....talk about ass backwards. 40sqm is piss tiny at that. Two smokers at opposite ends could smog the whole place.

 

And, obviously non-smokers weren't happy with the segregation...otherwise they wouldn't be imposing these bans.

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