Priorities

You wish to reduce the incidence of a certain action and you have two choices.

1. Stop subsidizing it
2. Ban some of the activities that support it.

Of course the first choice makes more sense, but imagine you plan to do both, which would be the priority?

The European Union has welcomed a continent-wide ban on tobacco advertising that will come into effect this week, as it prepares to phase out subsidies to growers from next year.

No the EU way is ban first, stop subsidies later. In a statement that shows how European Union policy is far removed from the reality we live in:

"Banning tobacco advertising is one of the most effective ways of reducing smoking," said health and consumer protection commissioner Markos Kyprianou. "This directive will save lives and reduce the number of Europeans who suffer from smoking related illnesses," he said.

Does he not know that Europe’s biggest problem is an aging population? Surely we should encourage smoking to overcome the coming pension’s crisis.