Paula Todhunter, Chapter 1, Question #5

When he was talking about how increasing the price of anything will cause people to use it less, I was  enlightened. It's a super simply thing but it can have so many affects. I was especially surprised by the examples of cigarettes and cocaine, because I typically think that no matter what people are gonna find a way to buy the stuff they're addicted to. But the prices really do affect the use. More specifically, the affects that raising the price of cigarettes by 34% could have had. It would have reduced the amount of teen smokers by a quarter and in turn reduced the amount of smoking-related premature deaths by 1.3 million. It's crazy how much one price change could affect. Also he talked a tiny bit about the cost of smoking beyond the price. He used to example of standing outside in the freezing cold just to have a smoke. That's a cost although it doesn't have anything to do with money.