Smoke

Across the globe, more than 1.2 billion people smoke - and one billion of them are more or less poor.

Tobacco taxes are poverty taxes.

This is the gist of a fascinating column by Neil Reynolds in today's Globe.

While governments everywhere are having a lot of fun suing Bog Tobacco for health costs, the governments are raking in 50 cents on every dollar spent on cigarettes.

And this money is spent more often by poor people.

The reasons for this are complicated and very interesting.