The Empty

Governor Blagojevich signed into law the Smoke Free Illinois Act this week.  Now, I'm libertarian by nature, but I have absolutely no problem with this new law.  I have been in many bars/taverns/clubs as my place of work for the night and I have had to soak up as much smoke as anyone.  I stunk.  I got sick occasionally.  I had to shower at 3am before my wife would let me get into bed.

So I may sound a bit tyrannical in saying that smokers should be banned to the underground to smoke themselves out, but there is no upside to smoking.  Or is there?  Cigarette sales generate a lot of tax revenue.  When I lived in AZ I was torn between voting for a measure to ban smoking or voting for a measure to up the tax on a pack by 80 cents or so to pay for early childhood education.  Heck, why ban smoking if we can make more money off of it for our kids, eh?

Instead of a ban on smoking, designate a mandatory smoking cover charge.  You wanna smoke in a restaurant?  $5.  You wanna smoke in a bar or club?  Add $10 to the cover that is already being charged.  And all the nonsmokers get a cut of that action.  We already know that the price elasticity of demand for things like cigarettes is inelastic.  Pile on the taxes and penalties and let it ride.