Clarity comments on Open Thread, Feb 8 - Feb 15, 2016 - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Elo 08 February 2016 04:47AM

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Comment author: TezlaKoil 08 February 2016 01:07:36PM 2 points [-]

Dagon's points are very good. There's another aspect as well:

Tobacco import and distribution (and in some cases, production) are already nationalized in many countries, especially in the EU. National governments try to impose artificial scarcity (winding down operations, tax increases, fixed pricing), and this makes the statistics look better - officially monitored tobacco sales decrease.

Artificial scarcity cannot last: a black market of RYO tobacco, and home-made cigarettes of dubious origin is always ready to serve customer demands. In the end, the health effects of nationalizing the tobacco industry, and winding down operations, can easily be negative.

Comment author: Clarity 10 February 2016 05:04:00AM -2 points [-]

Tobacco import and distribution (and in some cases, production) are already nationalized in many countries,

that's not what nationalising means

Comment author: TezlaKoil 10 February 2016 07:07:40AM 2 points [-]

I mean nationalized, as in the distribution of tobacco products (imports, wholesale, retail) is handled by companies that may or may not have been private at some point, but are now property of the state.

What do you mean by nationalizing?