Healthy? You're a burden on the state

I am a good socialist

I will stop dieting at once! Bring on the fries and burgers!

On second thought, I think by the time I get Alzheimers I will opt for a suicide pill.

Take THAT anti-smoking fascists!!!!!!

At last! Research that is not sponsored by the "you smoke?? You ARE SCUM!!!!" brigade.

The one with the smokes in one pocket and the cakes in the other, thanks!

Give me £60k

I'm an obese smoker. Can I take the money now please?

As to "Dead people don't contribute anything in tax" - WHAT? You've never heard of the gross injustice that is inheritance tax then? The biggest lump sum of tax you'll ever pay Greedy Gordon I expect...

The Penguin, cos he's looking a bit chubby, and is probably sitting down cos of his 20 a day habit. Good socially responsible Penguin.

(Total lifetime taxes) - (Total healthcare)

But what is the lifetime total of a healthy individuals taxes minus health care costs versus that of an average or unhealthy person.

Surely an average or healthy person would manage to contribute more in taxes to the state by working steadily from 20 to 65 with little or no health care, this would mean that the net gain would be greater than that of an obese or smoking addicted individual who would need health care costs over their lifetime.

Actually...

@ AC --Dead people don't contribute anything in tax.

Yes, but they don't ask for much from the government either. If they want brains they rise from their graves and terrorize the living until they get their fill. No government intervention needed, no nanny state, no National Death Service to hand it to them. The Dead are very fiscally responsible.

Fire because it's the only thing them undead buggers fear.

Re: Flawed logic

Not that flawed. We don't cost or contribute when we're dead. While we're alive we're young and productive and pay income tax. While you non-smokers are old you contribute bugger all.

To paraphrase Bill Hicks (I think), you can have those years.

Think my smokes are in my jacket...

Soylent Green

It's so tasty!

@AC - Not flawed at all

You're missing the point that the people contribute a lot in taxes on the way to the grave but then pop their clogs relatively quickly. That's a net gain to the exchequer.

And as the poster above remarked it has been clear for years that we all owe a great debt to smokers, drinkers and fatties for paying for our pensions and geriatric health care with little chance of cashing in themselves.

Gawd bless'em all!

Skull and crossbones for the spectre of death stalking the land.

This is hilarious!

I work at a state-run mental health facility. The focus in the public sector is to reduce/eliminate government involvement in health care. [Obviously I'm in the U.S.]

Let's face facts....sick people cost money. The choices are 1) pay for their care with tax money or 2) make them take their chances in the for-profit environment of the private medical sector. Either way, if you're not able to self-pay, the risk of staying sick or dying due to insufficient care is quite high. In the case of mental health, it's literally as simple as declaring somebody cured (I've seen it done). It's a little harder with a cancer, heart or liver patient. You simply tell them that their insurance is no longer in force and to go away. In any event, the patient is done a disservice. In the end, though, it really doesn't matter. Please note that the actuaries, accountants and attorneys are in control (as is evidenced here by cash values being placed on care costs and stated as the most important issue). The impression we should be left with is that health care is too costly at any price and costs transferred elsewhere....anywhere but here.

@Flawed logic - your logic is flawed

"Dead people don't contribute anything in tax."

They also don't claim pensions. Work out how much someone living beyond 65 costs the state every year ... I suspect you'll find, again, these healthy types are a drain on the system .....

Eat LARD..

..'cos it's good for you!

Hurray

So..... rather then charging vice TAX, we should be receiving a vice subsidy.

I look forward to my rebate and in the mean time free booze and fags all round!

@Anonymous Coward

Eat more (still a skinny bugger though) *check*

drink more (off to Poland at the weekend) *check*

smoke more (Poland has cheap fags) *check*

drive faster (own BMW + therefore the whole road!) *check*

ban seatbelts (I'll try to forget)

ban motorbike helmets (Doesn't make much difference on 1000cc bike) *check*

take up extreme sports (Snowboarding at the end of the month)

stop filling in pot holes (They already have!)

end the nanny state (I wish)

ban health warnings on food and electrical items (I'm off to Poland and can't read Polish!) *check*

I think that's me sorted then... Nice knowing you lot

Sto lat, Sto lat... (actually... maybe "czterdziesci lat" would be more accurate!)

*croak*

(Anon just in case the boss sees!)

Oh really? I don't think so

I'm not a burden on the State, the State is a burden on me! They don't own me, although organ grabbing makes it look that way. These chumps are supposed to be in "power" to represent my interests, our interests. We pay huge amounts in tax and national insurance and then told we are a burden? The burden are the politicians, and people who produce this stuff. Let us put them all on an ark and send them off to look for new worlds!

@Chris W

This smoking, beer swilling fat git is definitely not a sponger, currently paying super tax, so how the fluff can I be called a drain on the social? propping it up more like at the moment. Also chris do you not go down to the pub, or with views like that have they barred you?....if you had any mates to go with in the first place

Healthy = more

Fair enough a healthy person costs more than an unhealthy person because they live longer.

But then a healthy person lives longer and contributes more money in taxes.

The only person who could contribute more is a "healthy" smoker who pays exorbitant tax on their ciggies (as an ex-smoker that still annoys me I used to have to pay all of that tax,) and lives longer and pays more tax.

So surely we should all become healthy smokers :) Sure we'll cost more, but we'll easily cover that with all the tax we'll pay.

P.H. as I've confused myself lol

Chris W, are you quite sure?

@ Chris W.

"Smoking beer swilling fat gits tend to be out of work spongers.."

Presumably, as you're reading el Reg, you've at least a passing interest in IT. Want to take a gander at your nearest IT support department and then go away and think about what you just said?

Hmmm....

Considering that there's already pressure on NHS to not treat those with "unhealty lifestyles" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/27/nhs127.xml) and I'm finding very conflicting studies concerning whether smoking or obesity themselves causes absenteeism or whether that's an association with other factors, such as simply being older than 25, I'm thinking that being a fat puffer would likely end up saving money in the long run.

Well at least

Dead people can still vote in America.

@Dan

"But then a healthy person lives longer and contributes more money in taxes"

Not so. The "healthy person" will have paid far less tax as they went through their working life, and stop paying income tax when they retire - I don't know the actual figures but i'd guess the average retiree's tax outgoings from all sources (e.g. VAT etc) is borderline break even or even a loss for the government. The only way your argument would stack up would be if the unhealthy were kicking the bucket a long time before normal retirement age, but they probably aren't.

I've always figured the smokers and drinkers were subsidising all the other sanctimonious b*stards and it looks like I was right. We need a big war to level the playing field and whinnow out some of the fit people. That'll teach 'em.

@system

Out on a work do and a contractor who earned 3 times what I did was heard to say, "I don't pay my taxes so layabout students can drink!" He wasn't very happy when I told him his sentence was complete after the first 5 words...

@Chris W

"Smoking beer swilling fat gits tend to be out of work spongers so they hardly contribute anything whilst alive."

Fuck you! I pay 40% tax, have private health care AND am smoking and drinking myself to death.

After reading your post I don't know why I bother now

I also don't read the daily mail

On that basis ...

... we should all encourage the growth of cot deaths, because if 99% of babies were to die in their first 6 months, something like 99% of NHS expenditure could be saved.

Flawed logic

@ Retarded Coward - I would like to dispute the flawed logic that dead men pay no tax. Please check on the tax situation of Freddy Mercury's estate and the royalties that are still coming in for his songs !! Unfortunately, you'll have to fight your way through that horde of vampires, sorry I mean HM Inspectors of Taxes, to get at em.

@Kevin Kitchen - Not true !! You have conveniently missed out the exorbitant taxes on booze and fags consumed during their lifetimes !!

@Jaap Stoel - By the time you get Alzheimers, you'll forget where you put that suicide pill !!

@Steve Browne - tis because ever since the Great Mrs. Thatcher suffered the Ides of March, we've been electing one nanny state government after another !! What you votes is what you gets !!

Flame cos it the nearest representation of my lighter !

Re: This is similar to a previous study

"The report was pulled as it was deemed not politically correct."

Or was it because the report wasn't correct?

Did you check the situation or did you jump to the conclusion?

Death Tax.

Wrong Dead people do contribute in taxes. Ever heard of the Estate Tax?

You die they sell your property, and someone else pays tax.

I dont know if they have inheritance tax on your side of the pond.

Someone has to bury you or incinerate your remains. Then there is the auction to sell all those items you have been hording.