Am I the only non-smoker who thinks "smoking bans" are a bunch of BS?

[John Kilduff]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This is nanny state thinking at its apex. Employees are too stupid to choose where they work, a smokey bar or a smoke free environment.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are simply using slogans to make your point. Employees simply don't have the choice you think they have. There stupidity, as you call it, may extend to putting them at risk to support their families.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is the point several in this thread are neglecting. Employees cannot change jobs as easily as they can change what they're having for dinner tonight. Also, what people may not realize is that there used to be NO CHOICE, since before the bans came along, smoking was everywhere: inessentially every bar, restaurant, workplace, office building, etcetera. They presume that since today there exist choices, that it was always like that, or would be like that absent the bans. Having experienced an era of smoking being nearly omnipresent, I have less faith that if the bans were lifted today, that consumers and workers would have the degree of choice that they seem to suppose would exist absent the bans. My guess is that HeavilyArmed, too, is too young to have experienced or to remember what it was like in the USA before any smoking bans came into effect.

Today, it might be that even absent the bans, there would be more choices due to greater public awareness and preferences. I doubt there be nearly as much choice as the advocates of non-bans would suppose, though.