There's a hilarious short standup comedy bit on "Cheese" Heroin on this week's 'This American Life', which will be free for download until Saturday. The routine starts at 19 minutes and 45 seconds in, and you can download it
here.
The bit afterward on quantifying the economic impact of early deaths due to cigarettes is also interesting, though the reporter is a bit inane.
[Thanks Barnaby!]
cigarette smoking is good for the economy (because dead people don't cost the
guvmint health care or pension dollars)." Well, it may sound a little absurd, but cigarettes really are good for the "economy." In our current system, the health of the economy is driven my spending and consumption. Cigarettes increase both. They're also a healthy source of export revenue. (This is not a defense of cigarettes or or tobacco companies; it's more of an indictment of our current, unsustainable economic system. Growth and consumption are, by definition, unsustainable.)
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