Cigarettes And Cancer by Aharleygyrl

The Government is in a really great place when it comes to Cigarettes. The Tobacco Industry cannot complain much because the Government protected them a great deal since their inception, eventhough their product kills people. By taxing them and allowing them on the market, it gave a green light, too. Oddly, the same entity that protects Cigarettes, is the same one who warns individuals about their dangerous health risks. If that ain't the best of both worlds, I don't know what is. It says to both the Consumer and to the Corporation, we are doing our best to protect your interests.

Cigarettes are also another scapegoat for the Government and Big Business to use to misguide our attention. Not only does it have us focus on the Smoker and not the product, but is instrumental in keeping our thoughts away from how many people are killed with Chemotherapy and Radiation; While many will get Cancer from the Cigarettes (they want us to be aware of), many of those will die because of our Big Business money-maker Cancer treatments, that probably kill more people every year than Cigarettes themselves.

Don't you find it odd that a Country who's Government is said to look out for our welfare, allows Cigarettes on the market? Sure if they were banned, there would be a black market, but at least one of our major killers and Cancer-causers would not be deemed American as apple pie. But, the reason for all this oddness is one thing and one thing only...money. Your Country sells your health down the river, down the polluted river, I should say, because Corporate America in collusion with Government regulations, has everything polluted nowadays.

If the Government were really interested in the health of it's citizens, and not simply making money off Big Business and the Consumer, we would not have Cigarettes at the store, and Doctors would not be using Chemotherapy and Radiation to treat Cancer. Furthermore, the Government would not be shunning and avoiding studying Natural and Alternative Cancer Treatments (many of which, are very effective and much less toxic than mainstream Treatments). Humans are simply so easily manipulated and led, that we are like putty in Corporate America's/Government's hands. We will allow ourselves to be forced to wear seatbelts and helmets, yet even most who are anti-smoking would say it is wrong to keep Cigarettes from those who choose to smoke.

The definition of Politics is, how to get someone to do something that they don't really want to do and make them happy to do it. That is what your Government is about, not how to best protect your health (which is all anyone really has anyway), but to continously strategically manipulate your behaviors so that they ensure enormous profits for both themselves and Big Business.

Until John Q. Public steps back and says wait a minute, this Capitalist system doesn't seem to be working, there are only so many American Dream jobs, most of us will never have the opportunity to attain that lifestyle, the rich are getting richer and poisoning us more all the time with their pollution and drugs, we will continue in this downward spiral, lining the pockets of Government and Big Business and be seemingly happy to do so. I think the main problem is that people are never taught that Capitalism and Democracy are not one in the same and one doesn't require the other to exist. Democracy is a form of government that translates to one person one vote. Capitalism is an economic system and it is not beyond reproach as we are led to believe.