Objectively intelligent.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Total tobacco related US mortality is about 500,000 per year, all in (cancer, heart disease, etc.). But much of that results from past use - if you banned tobacco today the number would decline to zero only over 40-50 years. You'd basically get 10 years of life expectancy for the portion of the population that smokes back.

Max. deaths from this round with the TrumpVirus approaches about 3 million.

Assuming high numbers on both, even if you fully eliminate all tobacco consumption, it would likely take more than a decade to save as many lives as we can with good management of this problem.

It's a big fuckin problem.

Ok. Good info. Maybe that wasn't a good example. What about car accidents? 2.2M injured every year. Mandate that all cars be fully autonomous by 2030 - that number drops by a factor of 10 (100?). Or ban gas cars? We've just seen smog disappear in Italy and China when people don't drive. The increase in air quality alone would probably save/lengthen millions of lives, and probably would better the lives of many people who have to live with problems caused by poor air quality. All of these things are significantly less costly than what we are doing right now.

ETA: my background in econ pretty much makes my brain look at the cost/benefit of things. I know it's a robotic way of looking at things. But if Dumbledore is allowed to think about "for the greater good," then so am I.