>----- Original Message ----- >From: "Tom C" Subject: Re: Doomsday is coming upon us? > > > > >"Your freedom ends at the tip of my nose". > >>It is the theory that the anti smoking lobby has used to force the > >>discontinuance of smoking in public places. > > > > And I agree with that 100%. > > > >I agree with it to a point, Smokers are this generation's lepers, so we use >the law to find ways to remove them from our society. >What happens when lobby groups start forming to end motor vehicle pollution >using exactly the same precedent as was used on the smokers? >Frankly, they could make a better case than the non smoking lobby. > >William Robb >
Hmm. I don't view it quite the same way. While I recognize that nicotine is extremely addictive and smokers are, to an extent, victims because of that (and I wish them every success in quitting and benefitting from doing so), it still in no way gives them the right to engage in behavior that has been shown to harm others, and to do so without consent. With smoking, each individual has the personal choice to smoke/not smoke. OK, at one point it was if you smoke you're hurting yourself. Now it's been shown that second hand smoke affects others health. Armed with that knowledge the choice is to smoke around others/not smoke around others. I'll stick my head on the chopping block here - Since most smokers *apparently* don't care all that much that they are damaging their own health, is it likely they would voluntarily limit their behavior in order to protect others health? If the world were so noble... it by and large does not happen that way. So protections have to be set up for those that don't engage in the harmful behavior. In the case of auto pollution, relatively few of us have a choice. We can drive or not drive, but the entire infrastructure is set up in such a way that there is little personal choice in the matter for most of us. With polluting vs. low-polluting vehicles, there is actually very little choice at the personal level because of both availability and finances. >What happens when lobby groups start forming to end motor vehicle pollution >using exactly the same precedent as was used on the smokers? What would happen then, if they are successful, is that we'd likely see a multitude of affordable vehicle offerings that are more environmentally friendly than today and a cleaner environment because of it. The costs of forcing the industry to do something meaningful in this regard would likely be smaller than the costs to the environment and health of the planet's inhabitants. Tom C. (not trying to argue but expressing a viewpoint) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
