Congrats to those who have quit smoking. Good luck to those who want to.

Seems that people here generally go along with the government line of fuck those who can't get out of the way. I still can't sign on to that. It's the Hitler mentality. Don't like it.

But I can understand the reasoning behind making those who engage in unsound physical behaviors pay more, so society won't have to foot so much of the bill.

And seeing as that is how so many of you think, maybe we should look at some other behaviors that cause financial problems for society.

There's overeating, but that's been done to death. Cities are already adding "fat taxes" to various foods around the U.S., but what about some sort of HIV tax?

I saw some figures at this CDC site that are pretty sobering. The Centers for Disease Control, a government site. From the site:

Gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) represent approximately 2% of the United States population, yet are the population most severely affected by HIV. In 2010, young MSM (aged 13-24 years) accounted for 72% of new HIV infections among all persons aged 13 to 24, and 30% of new infections among all MSM....

Damn. If I'm reading that right, then society is having to pay a hell of a cost for gay men spreading HIV. So, shouldn't gays have to at least pay more for health insurance? Maybe they do, I don't know. Smokers pay 50% more under the new Obamacare policies, so do gays pay more too? It would only be right that they do, right? Because of their physically dangerous behavior? Based on how you people want to punish smokers, you should want to punish gays too, right?