CARPE DIEM
Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
About Me
- Name: Mark J. Perry
- Location: Washington, D.C., United States
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
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12 Comments:
State and federal governments should have been listed as one of the defendants in the tobacco lawsuits. They make more profit per pack than any cigarette manufacturer.
I also have great objections to these "anti-tobacco" ads they're running.
First, they aren't "anti-tobacco", they're "anti-tobacco company."
Second, these commercials are made by left-wing groups - another way to funnel billions of dollars to leftist causes.
I don't smoke. I think smoking is disgusting. I find smokers to be among the most casually inconsiderate people. They generally don't care where their smoke flows nor do they care where they throw their butts.
But I find it strange that we permit a product to be sold, tax it heavily, demand they place health warnings on the package, and then reward the morons who buy the product anyway and suffer ill consequences.
Even Hitler knew in the 1930's that cigarette smoking was unhealthy.
Wow, number of posts until invocation of Godwin's law = 1. Very nice.
Herr H. may have known that smoking was unhealthy.
So, how come he didn't know that fighting a war with the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States (all at the same time) was even more unhealthy?
Just think, if he had been a smoker and died of lung cancer in 1930, how much the world would have benefited from smoking.
Robert Miller said "I find it strange...."
Mr. Miller, the image posted explains it perfectly. What more is to find strange after that?
I don't think Godwin's Law applies here. Hitler was not invoked as an attack on a fellow poster, or even the original blog post, but as a reference to Hitler's notoriously clean living.
I think the only appropriate use of tax money generated from tobacco above and beyond a standard level of sales tax should be used to treat medical conditions arising from tobacco use.
Hmmm....
Is it possible that Godwin's Law is made possible by humanity always being just one step away from Hitler and the Nazis. Oppression is the rule in human history, not the exception.
My parents smoked and I can't stand cigarettes. However, if Obama really wanted to bring down healthcare expenses, he would abandon the anti-smoking campaign and eliminate the excise tax on cigarettes (although, I understand the demand is fairly inelastic for smokes). Smokers die young and quickly. Of all the bad habits, this one is the least costly. Obesity, on the other hand...
So true...
Someone needs to read his own Wikipedia entry on Godwin's Law.
However, Godwin's Law itself can be abused, as a distraction, diversion or even censorship, that fallaciously miscasts an opponent's argument as hyperbole, especially if the comparisons made by the argument are actually appropriate.
The point of my statement is that it has been well-known since the 1930s that cigarette smoking was unhealthy - Hitler being the most high-profile and widely-known person to openly declare it as such in personal actions and public policy.
Note well that Hitler did not ban cigarette smoking in Germany entirely. He gave a gold watch to his staff members who kicked the habit. By 1944 he banned smoking in government offices, public transportation, university campuses, hospitals, rest homes, restaurants and bars. He banned unsupervised vending machines and increased taxes on cigarettes. Sound familiar?
Himmler banned smoking in the SS.
I shall create a new law... called Miller's Law:
"The probability of some geek inappropriately citing 'Godwin's Law' at the mere mention of 'Hitler' or 'Nazism' is 1"
I suppose the History Channel should be called the Godwin Channel.
Gresham's Law: Empty spaces fill in. (this is my understanding)
At what point do the ciagarette manufacturers get a pass? The generation that did not know that cigarettes may have been harmful is passing. As long as no one else is harmed by the smoke -- light them up if you have them.
So, how come he didn't know that fighting a war with the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States (all at the same time) was even more unhealthy?
Nice one :-D
I am a real conservative.
I'll drink to that. Cheers.
"I suppose the History Channel should be called the Godwin Channel."
The History Channel is sometimes called the Hitler Channel because of its heavy reliance on WWII themes.
@fboness:
Hitler Channel: Yeah, that's where I got it from. A coworker clued me in on that. Funny!
@Rand:
If I recall correctly, at the start of WWII the US Army was the world's 17th largest - smaller than that of Greece. It trained with broomsticks for machineguns and jeeps as tanks. On Dec 7, 1941 we had only 36 divisions to the Germans' 200. Japan nearly destroyed our Pacific fleet. Up to that point neutrality was our policy - a sign of weakness.
By early 1943 Hitler had conquered, allied or annexed Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxemburg and was attacking Moscow. He sieged Stalingrad, Leningrad. Japan had conquered most of Asia. The Axis had allies in the Balkans, Middle East, South America, and was in negotiations with Mexico to join the war against us. V1 and V2 bombs rained on England.
By June 44 the tide had turned through some tough battles, lucky breaks, technology, cheap Soviet rifles and tanks, cracked codes and collosal blunders by Hitler. Up to that point the war was looking pretty good for Der Fuhrer.
What was this post about again?
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