W. Kip Viscusi

Increasing tobacco taxes is not an effective method of reducing cigarette consumption, particularly among children and teens, W. Kip Viscusi contends in the following viewpoint. Increased cigarette taxes have the greatest impact on the very poor, he argues, not on children, teens, or the majority of adult smokers. He insists that efforts to reduce smoking should instead work to establish nonsmoking areas and smoking lounges in public places so that nonsmokers are not harmed. W. Kip Viscusi is a professor of law and economics at Harvard Law School.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What does Viscusi argue is the basis for prohibitionist concerns about smoking?
2. What is the public’s perception of the harmfulness of secondhand smoke, in the author’s opinion?
3. According to Viscusi, why...