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Quitting Smoking Has Some Economic Benefits |
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Quitting smoking has economic benefits for
you as well as for the government. But, first we would have to know the
economic costs of smoking which will make us understand the economic
benefits better. Needless to say, the immediate benefit of quitting
smoking is that you will have more cash in your pocket.
In the
language of economics, there is whooping $130 billion of real resource
costs of smoking in The United States. That is to say this $130 billion
is more burdensome to the US economy than the same levied as taxes. It
imposes a tax on the consumer, but provides offsetting revenues to the
government.
According to a study, smoking
related illnesses cost the US, $60 billion per year. It can only mean
one thing- the waste of scarce medical resources. If we can eliminate
smoking tomorrow, the resulting savings can partially offset our GDP
deficits. If a smoker smokes more than one packet a day, he will spend
an amount of $25000 while a Masters degree cost around $22000 in the US.
Smoking
related externalities, like fire caused by smoking cost the US $500
million apart from human lives. So, you can well imagine the benefits of
quitting smoking.
Another economic cost of smoking is the reduced
productive capacity of the economy and the cost from shortened lives.
Smokers tend to be younger and retire sooner. This carries a price of
$80 billion to the US economy due to lost output and lost wages. Also
the absentee rate among smokers is very high.
You might have
never thought about these implications earlier but these are the points
which need your attention. If not paid heed, they are capable of
resulting into costs much higher than the present figures.
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