[fontain]

Society is by definition “forcing” people to carry the burden of other’s choices. You’re drawing an entirely arbitrary line at direct taxation. Why is it “fair”? Because society isn’t zero sum. We each give and take in different ways.

[tt24]

Not sure how much a skydiving soda drinking drug user “””gives””” to society haha

[fontain]

Your perception of drug users is woefully out of date. The most “valuable” members of society by your metric (contributing tax dollars) are using a lot of drugs. The U.K. upper middle class are snorting so much coke.

[tt24]

Sorry I don’t believe this

[fontain]

You must not be living in the U.K. then.

https://theweek.com/health/britains-cocaine-habit-use-of-the...

[newdee]

Why not?

[tt24]

Personal anecdotes and bias. I’ve never met anyone successful who regularly consumes drugs as serious as cocaine. At worst it’s marijuana, with minor experimentation with harder substances in college or on special occasions.

[t-3]

"Regularly" is doing a lot of work here. Plenty of rich and successful people dabble in drugs. People with any level of wealth who can function normally in society while habitually and regularly using any substance are pretty obviously much less likely to develop a habit in the first place.

[fontain]

I can’t believe someone with so little life experience would speak so confidently. You don’t know any successful drug users?