I can understand why the government has tried to reduce the number of smokers, because of smoking's huge financial strain on the population (via the NHS that must be paid for by the tax payer) and its associated health problems.
This anti-smoking ad is from Hong Kong and tries to evoke memories of 9/11.
We all know the effects of smoking and so one can understand the government's tactics of high tax, ban on advertising, anti-smoking adverts , propaganda in schools and now a ban on smoking in public places.
I wonder how many millions or possibly billions have been used on healthcare for smokers?
Having said that, I wonder why the government does nothing when it comes to marriage. Successive governments have let things get wayyyy out of hand!!! Did you know that over 25% of families have broken down? Do we know much money the government hands out the single parent families every year? I reckon house prices have gone up so much these last few decades, due specifically to the break down of families. This is because they no longer live together under one roof, but live in separate houses instead of sharing one. Surely this on its own has added £100,000 to everyone elses life time expenses! The population of the UK has not changed over the last 40 years, so I can see no other reason! One also has to put into context the huge social problems associated with one parent family children. They are more likely to be unemployed, get obese, smoke, go to prison (our prisions are currently bursting at the seams), take drugs...
I am not saying single families shouldn't get the money, I think they deserve more, but the government should be doing a lot more to help families stay together so that the breakdown doesn't occur and inform young people about healthy relationships and true love, rather than the value free sex nonsense they usually hear and from a such a young age. I also believe that many people get into bad relationships simply because they are young, have never been told how to sustain a healthy relationship, and the government, media and society give them wrong messages about love and relationships.
To aid this problem the government could carry out initiatives such as family marriage prep. courses, setting up marriage counselling centres or visitors which constantly advertise on TV etc. and break the negative attitudes to marriage conselling. To encourage people to marry, rather than live together, wedding presents of £10,000 per couple from the government (one of my sisters is a single parent and estimates she gets circa. £20,000 each year. This therefore would be a money saving excercise). Perhaps 5 year anniversary gifts too. Perhaps someone can think of some better incentives than me!
The only one's worse than the government on this score is the media. When Ian Duncan Smith MP came out just recently with his report on the importance of stable families, the media jumped up and down saying you cannot moralise and tell people how to live! Why didn't they say this about the smoking ban?
I think the reason why society has a different view to marriage, than for smoking is because they see marriage as a product of religion (smoking has been morally neutral traditionally in religion). However, I believe that in future generations (when things have got a lot worse before they can get better) people will see that just to toss out any thing that works, because they think it is associated with religion was the worst move in the history of mankind. I think people reject religion, as we live in a society where self comes first, and religion tells us to put others first. Certainly, confining sex to marriage is difficult for the individual, but for the good of society and all, it is worth doing, more so than any smoking ban.
