Edison has a well-known saying: "smoking is harmful to health", but like many famous quotes, this famous saying is in the last sentence: "but it is good for the country".
I think this has answered most of the questions.
Cigarettes are indeed 'harmful to human health', which is a widely recognized fact after numerous medical experiments and social investigation and research. It is another question that why do not smokers stop smoking, that is to say, 'why does the state not prohibit the production and sale of a product harmful to the health of citizens'?
From four aspects--
1. Tax.
What is not known to the public is that cigarette tax is a very important part in China, while in Guizhou, Yunnan and other places, cigarette is the pillar industry of the whole province, which gives great support to the local in terms of tax and employment.
I used to do a survey and ask people around me -- guess which industry contributes the most tax revenue in China?
There are many answers, but none of them is right. In fact, the biggest tax payer in China is the 'tobacco industry'.
In January 2018, the State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau announced that in 2017, the tobacco industry realized a tax profit of RMB 1114.51 billion, and once again realized a "profit tax of over trillion", more than eight times that of the wine industry.
What is the concept of trillion?
It is the largest tax payer in China, the employment of nearly ten million people in the upstream and downstream, and the world's first cigarette producer and consumer.
It's not obvious. Let me give you a few examples, and you can intuitively see how huge and terrible the profits of the cigarette industry are--
Magic capital Shanghai, a leading city in China, is known as "financial center" and "international city", but the tax giant is still Shanghai Tobacco Group - paying nearly 80 billion yuan a year! This tax actually accounts for 45% of Shanghai's industrial tax revenue and more than 6% of the total tax revenue! In Shanghai, the super city of China, nearly half of the industrial tax is contributed by tobacco companies. Can you believe it?
In front of the tax of Shangyan, Shanghai's no matter what traditional enterprise SAIC Shanggang Baosteel Sinopec ship, or the financial enterprise PUFA Haitong & hellip & hellip; eat people's ashes! The box office of Chinese films, which are hotly discussed all over the country, is only over 50 billion yuan a year. That's what the whole Chinese film industry "earns" at the box office. Sorry, they haven't paid much "tax" yet.
In addition, the tax revenue of Shanghai last year was 1.2 trillion yuan, which is equivalent to the contribution of the tobacco industry -- we can say that the Chinese tobacco industry has contributed one more Shanghai city to China in terms of tax revenue alone!
The large-scale Internet enterprises in Zhejiang Province are well known to the whole country -- Taobao, tmall (they calculate taxes separately), Netease & hellip; & hellip; when I investigated, many friends guessed that China now pays the most taxes for Internet enterprises, but the truth is & hellip; & hellip;
In 2017, Zhejiang Zhongyan Industry Co., Ltd. ranked first in Zhejiang Province in terms of tax payment of RMB 18.188 billion, and this tax amount is the sum of tmall, Taobao and Netease, which ranked second, third and fourth in Zhejiang Province.
Cigarette enterprises are all state-owned enterprises, and cigarette state-owned enterprises are the most profitable state-owned enterprises over the years, how many? Not to mention the specific figures, but more than the power, automobile, mining and other industries in the back.
Or so to compare -- the tax revenue of the tobacco industry is equivalent to two barrels of oil added by four major banks, and the military expenditure of China in one year.
In front of the terrorist income generating ability of the tobacco group, except for the real estate industry, no matter the old or the new, there is no big enterprise that we know well.
Of course, the meaning of real estate industry to China is not tax revenue but fiscal revenue & hellip; & hellip; that's another topic.
2. Social security.
China's social security account deficit is no secret, which has been the theme of the annual press conference of the Ministry of human resources and social security.
The development of cigarette industry, in addition to the great contribution in tax payment, also has a great contribution in alleviating the social security pressure in China.
This is not convenient to say too detailed, to give you a joke, you can experience it yourself--
In the British play "yes, Prime Minister", there is such a dialogue, sharp and humorous:
Prime Minister: the report says smoking diseases cost the Ministry of health 165 million a year
Humphrey: Yes, but we did. The result is that if these 100000 people survive, they need more pension and social security than medical expenses, so it's better to keep the current mortality rate from the Ministry of finance. Cigarettes are also sponsors of major sports events & hellip; & hellip;
Prime Minister: we're talking about 100000 deaths a year
Humphrey: one third of our public health funding comes from the tobacco tax. We have saved so many lives, because these smokers have voluntarily sacrificed themselves to save their compatriots. Smokers are the benefactor of the country
"Smoke is such a thing - when its evil effects really come into being, it's already a person's old age. At this time, this person has retired. Instead of producing value for the society, he is eating social welfare. On the contrary, death is good for the country.
When smokers were young, they provided pension for the elderly, and paid a large amount of taxes to bear the expenses of many people (Social Security in January is 600, a package of Yellow Crane Tower is 600 a day, which is equivalent to supporting one more social security). After retirement, they left in a hurry to save their pension to others.
The smokers eat grass and milk. This kind of person is a noble person, a pure person, a moral person, a person divorced from the low taste and a person beneficial to the people. "
3. Freedom and economic law.
First of all, you should know that China is the largest tobacco consumer and producer in the world.
China's annual tobacco consumption is equivalent to the sum of the tobacco consumption of all countries ranking 2-29. More than a third of the world's tobacco is consumed by Chinese every year.
What does this have to do with the title 'freedom and economic law'? Thanks to the experience of the United States in treading on thunder -- there was a famous bill against economic laws in the 1920s called "Prohibition of alcohol", which was very powerful. What was the final result--
The prohibition was a total failure.
Private smuggling, illegal activities, anti law and drug trade activities have increased substantially.
The United States gangs rose rapidly by smuggling liquor. Until now, several big gangs in the United States are the ones that rose in that year, which has greatly damaged social security.
It can be imagined that China is the largest tobacco country in the world. If the "tobacco sales ban" is implemented, how much trouble will it cause.
So now, countries in the world, including China, adopt the method of "soft tobacco control" to control tobacco, such as banning smoking in public places, raising consumption tax on tobacco, forcing disease organs on tobacco boxes, etc;
4. The negative externality required for a behavior to be restricted.
Many friends will retort that: according to your opinion, drugs should also be liberalized, and there are a lot of taxes to collect, but also to solve social security problems and so on & hellip; & hellip;
But that doesn't hold water.
Because the nature of cigarettes is different from that of drugs and even alcohol, it involves a concept called 'negative externality'.
Negative externalities have a negative impact on the bystanders, that is, some market activities will bring costs to the bystanders, such as pollution.
When you understand this concept and extend it to your life, it means that as a social person, when you do things by yourself, whether you affect or harm others can be the reason for 'forbidding you to do this'.
Focus - as a citizen of the country, you have all human rights since you were born, but some behaviors will "affect and harm others", so the country will involve laws and regulations to "restrict and deprive" your rights - such as the right to have sex with strangers, the right to drink and drive, the right to take drugs & hellip; & hellip;
"You have all the rights, which can be deprived only when the state gives sufficient reasons" - this is the meaning behind the legal concept of "law is feasible without prohibition" in the field of individual citizens!
From this point of view to explain "why the country does not prohibit the sale of cigarettes and smoking.".
Both cigarettes and alcohol are addictive, but this kind of addiction is relatively small. If you can quit by will, you will not be restricted to enjoy it in private. This is your freedom and the country will not deprive it.
But in another scene, when driving - smoking is not prohibited, because smoking basically has no impact on your driving, but drinking alcohol is different. Drinking alcohol will damage your driving ability and judgment, and cause 'negative externalities' to pedestrians and other vehicles, so drinking driving is illegal. (in other words, the prohibition is not strict. Driving and smoking is only the level of violation, but driving after drinking and taking drugs is the level of violation.)
The same goes for drugs. First of all, the addictive nature of drug taking is very great, basically there is no possibility of quitting by virtue of one's own will, which seriously damages the physical and mental health of citizens.
At the same time, the diseases and crimes caused by drug abuse and the harmful behaviors caused by the abnormal mental state after drug abuse & hellip; have seriously exceeded the bottom line of social tolerance, and have serious negative external interference to other people in this society. Therefore, drug production and drug trafficking are all illegal and criminal acts.
In terms of 'negative externality', we can see that the negative externality of cigarettes is relatively small, but it can not be said that there is no - so banning smoking in public places, which used to be a virtue, has become a law in many places.
"What do people who quit smoking say?"?
"Smokers are the benefactor of the country" may be a little joking, but I think that people who can quit smoking are really heroes of themselves and their families.
I'm serious.