California Raises Legal Age to Buy Tobacco From 18 to 21

[UK2K]

alcohol is a different thread IMO...so is driving

The reason I keep bringing these up is because they ARE related to the topic. The question being 'when are you an adult'? The law says 18. So why are you in favor of a law telling a grown adult what they can and can't do?

Which is why I keep bringing up alcohol. You are an adult, kinda, but you're not.

Which is also why I questioned your 'good for society' point... I would like to know your cut off point. There are lots of things good for society we don't do. It'd be super beneficial if we stopped offering junk food in grocery stores. Fat people buying fatty foods for their little kids is borderline abuse if you think about it.

So why smoking, but nothing else? At what point does it go 'for the good of society' to '**** it, who cares'?

[Dresta]

Sometimes what is best for society is NOT what puts the most money in our pockets.

Well I agree with you there. But we're not talking about spare change here: we're talking about bankruptcy and the passing down of a humungous burden so that those who are currently old can enjoy privileges that those who are soon to be old will not have and will not be able to enjoy (and will have spent their whole lives paying for). Because of this catastrophic miscalculation, anything that will lessen this burden is likely a good thing if we're talking about society as a whole.

Being elderly is going to be a hell of a lot tougher on people in the future than it is now, especially if they're all living to 90, and the family continues to deteriorate (will be: "keep working or go and die somewhere"). Already most people treat their elderly relatives like annoying hindrances, to be shafted off onto others, and that's only going to get worse, the more of them there are.

We're a very selfish society when it comes to the old, and this is generally true in western nations; in more "backward" countries, people generally care for their own parents, make time for their elderly relatives, far more so than I see in the UK or the US.