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Re: Media Bias
3. Addressing your actual question (lol)
Interesting discussion, going back to college days of discussing utilitarianism .. when does societal interests trump personal independence?
We have seat belt laws .. but thats not really taking something away from someone and that is to benefit the individual person, not taking from individual to benefit society.
We have laws against drunk driving ... thats taking away a persons individual freedom for the betterment of society. But there, the threat to society is "likely" and "immediate" and "deadly".
We can establish a clear line that if an individual's action creates a (1) likely/foreseebale (2) immediate and (3) potentially deadly result to another member of society = society can regulate that individual action
But thats an easy line to draw and agree with.
Real questions is .. can govt regulate an individual's action if it will only negatively effect that individual?
US certainly regulates cigarettes, alcohol, weed. They tax the shit out of it as cigarettes and alcohol put a huge strain on our health medical community.
Cigarette smoking cost the US approx 600 BILLION in 2018.
On top of that .. 74% of cigarette smokers are low income/medicaid so society needs to luxury tax those goods to offset the down the road costs.
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Smoked cigarettes for decades, cold quit once I learned I was going to be a dad. Now I smoke maybe 5-10 a year
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