August 27, 2016
FIRST THEY CAME FOR MY CIGARETTES...:
Cancer is now the leading cause of death in 22 states. Surprisingly, that's good news. (Julia Belluz on August 24, 2016, Vox)
Americans are also simply living longer, and the overwhelming majority -- 86 percent -- of all cancers in the US are diagnosed in older people, over the age of 50.But while more people may be dying from cancer, the cancer death rate has actually been declining since the early 1990s. (In other words, of the people diagnosed with the disease, fewer are now dying from it.) These changes are mainly attributed gains in early detection and treatment advances, as well as declines in the smoking rate.The drop in heart disease deaths is also clearly good news. According to the American Heart Association, it can also be attributed in part to the decline in smoking, as well as improvements in emergency care for heart disease patients, medications and procedures, and increased awareness about healthy eating and lifestyle.
Such are the benefits of taxing what we don't want.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 27, 2016 8:14 AM