A Smoking Hot Solution

As a non-smoker who is reasonably concerned about my health I find myself in conflict when it comes to government regulated smoking bans. The selfish part of me loves them. Every bar, restaurant, store, work-place, bowling-alley, or any other venue becomes a magnet for my potential business, or at least a possible magnet. The big-government-hating, libertarian, free-market part of me hates these bans. How dare a large bureaucratic, money spending institution tell me or anyone where he or she can or can not enjoy a disgustingly tasting, tar-filled piece of rolled up paper?

As a free-market loving fool, I’m convinced that you can pretty easily put a monetary value to just about anything. So, consider this. What if we created an emission market for cigarette smoking?

You’ve probably heard of the emerging emissions market to control pollution. Companies are given a certain amount of credit to which they are allowed to pollute. Less efficient companies (those that produce more carbon than credits) can purchase additional credits from more efficient companies (those with carbon credits remaining).

Apply this concept to the micro-level and the question of whether and an establishment is non-smoking or smoking morphs into a question of how much is your preferred environment worth? Want to smoke? All you have to do is convince a non-smoker to sell you his or her smoking credit. Want your establishment of choice to be smoke free? Simple. Purchase all of the smoking credits and hold on to them. What’s it worth to you?