laws in other forms

In California, rather than have an unenforceable law about smoking, they are taxing the smokers right at the point of sale. Lots. So this could be an example somewhat contradicting the talk versus the action in previous posts, at least in California, and it's been in effect and progressively getting bigger for some years now. Some offset to rising costs of lung cancer and emphysema expense to the government. Helen Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

There was a book called "The Closing Circle" that said costs should be passed on to the source. One example in the book was that companies that cause air pollution should have to pay for people to get their carpets cleaned. It is an old book and there was a lot more pollution back then but the point is that if the true costs of peoples and companies actions were born by the company, it would be a lot better world. Taxing cigarettes to pay for the societal costs of smoking seems like a good example of this principle in action. Close the circle means bring the cost of a problem to the source of the problem. On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 1:08 PM, Helen Horn he… [at] sbcglobal.net [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > > In California, rather than have an unenforceable law about smoking, they > are taxing the smokers right at the point of sale. Lots. So this could be > an example somewhat contradicting the talk versus the action in previous > posts, at least in California, and it's been in effect and progressively > getting bigger for some years now. Some offset to rising costs of lung > cancer and emphysema expense to the government. Helen > > Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android > <https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/mobile/?.src=Android> > > >

It would seem reasonable to push the cost to the source if the source had a choice on what they were getting for the cost. But that doesn't happen. An example would be in the case of cigarettes. Give smokers options on the type of care they would receive for smoking related illnesses. The cheapest one may only be pain relief and the most expensive one would be full blown care. Pollution is a little different animal. The other problem is the service provider(ie, the Government) does not bear the cost pressures in the same way as the consumer. In theory, I agree w allowing the source of a problem to bear the costs. What I know of today's policies is that the source of the problem would not bear the cost, a smaller group would. Once the group is made small enough, they have little political clout to change policy since the people in charge are typically elected by a large group that has little to do w the issue or even worse, appointed by someone who is elected by a large group. In our current political structure, value is absent from the equation and the process to change policy is too long to provide a good return on investment. Jim Cal 29 sailor On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 11:26 PM, Allen Edwards al… [at] gmail.com [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > > There was a book called "The Closing Circle" that said costs should be > passed on to the source. One example in the book was that companies that > cause air pollution should have to pay for people to get their carpets > cleaned. It is an old book and there was a lot more pollution back then > but the point is that if the true costs of peoples and companies actions > were born by the company, it would be a lot better world. Taxing > cigarettes to pay for the societal costs of smoking seems like a good > example of this principle in action. Close the circle means bring the cost > of a problem to the source of the problem. > > On Thu, Apr 30, 2015 at 1:08 PM, Helen Horn he… [at] sbcglobal.net > [Cal_Boats] <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> wrote: > >> >> >> In California, rather than have an unenforceable law about smoking, they >> are taxing the smokers right at the point of sale. Lots. So this could be >> an example somewhat contradicting the talk versus the action in previous >> posts, at least in California, and it's been in effect and progressively >> getting bigger for some years now. Some offset to rising costs of lung >> cancer and emphysema expense to the government. Helen >> >> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android >> <https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/mobile/?.src=Android> >> >> > >