$368 billion tobacco settlement

FACED with the most massive array of firepower since the Persian Gulf War,
tobacco companies surrendered and agreed to pay an astounding $368 billion
the GDP of Australia as punishment for selling a perfectly legal,
heavily taxed product to millions of Americans.
But instead of lighting victory cigars, the beadles of the antismoking
religion Ralph Nader, Joe Califano and former FDA Commissioner David
Kessler are grousing that the bargain is too good for merchants of death.
In truth, the deal an exercise in political hysteria is a disaster for
anyone who believes in preserving the prime values in American society:
personal responsibility and freedom.
The agreement is also a frightening illustration of what can happen when
the legal authority of fanatical federal regulators and politicians lusting
for higher office becomes allied with a nearunanimous press and a pack of
venal plaintiffs' lawyers who include (incredibly) the brothersinlaw of
both the president and the Senate majority leader.
The guiding theory of the deal is that helpless individuals were duped
into smoking by tobacco companies. So, It's the companies, rather than the
smokers themselves, who will pay the price. This denial of personal
responsibility is part of a distressing trend (in the courts, it's called
the "abuse excuse") that is degrading both human worth and civilized society.
It's based on a view of people lacking free will and good judgment, being
hopelessly manipulated by outside forces in this case, greedy
corporations armed with advertising and chemicals.

James K. Glassman The Washington Post