The Tobacco Sham

摘要

Few people depend on tobacco more than Keith Beavers, a fifth-generation tobacco farmer in North Carolina. So when 46 states negotiated a $246 billion settlement in 1998 in lieu of suing tobacco companies for the cost of treating smoking-related illnesses, Beavers thought some of that cash should flow his way. "Us farmers, we're more affected than most by all this," he said recently in the midst of his 600-acre farm. "We're just trying to make a living. And it's getting harder." You might think Beavers was smoking something. After all, the billions from the settlement were supposed to help fund smoking-preven-tion campaigns and lessen the fiscal burden states bear by caring for sick smokers. Indeed, pundits noted the irony of Big Tobacco, in effect, paying the states to put them out of business.