My son just turned 21 (Happy Birthday, Cole!) and received the large cash payment I had promised him back at the age of 12 or 13 if he could honestly say that he had never tried smoking. Apropos of my blatant bribe to affect another person's behavior, comes this:

If you're a smoker, the pack of Marlboro Reds or Camel Lights you're inhaling might only be around $8, but the cost to your life could be many times more. ... Every pack of cigarettes that an adult male smokes knocks off $222 from the value of that man's life, estimate W. Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch of Vanderbilt Law School in a new NBER working paper. For women the results are slightly more muted but sizable at $94 per pack in 2006 dollars. The reason for the discrepancy is that men earn more than women over their lifetimes and are at greater risk of dying from smoking-related illnesses.

From Portfolio.com

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