No doubt we would all like to see less carnage on our roads, less grog and tabaco sales and certainly less wasted on the pokies ($15 million in QLD from the bonus payment alone). I hate to say I told you so!

The problem is, that if we stop traffic infringements, ban tabaco sales and remove the pokies, where is the money going to come from to fill the financial void left as these all generate huge tax revenues that are in turn spent on public needs.

Does doing 90k in a 80 zone produce additional ware on the roads?

I believe the money spent on tabaco related cancer is just a drop in the ocean compared to what is raised in taxes through the sale of tabaco products.

So I ask you, if we stop speeding, stop smoking and stop gambling, where will the money come from to fill the void?

It's not a big problem, Rehctub.

All we have to do is get rid or the 30% of public servants who do nothing, & the 10% who actually interfere with things getting done, & we would have more than enough to run the state, without those imposts.

The premiers dept would be a good place to start.

Difficult to say rehctub.

Perhaps the savings will come from the reduced welfare and health costs from gambling or tobacco/alcohol addiction.

It would be interesting to see just how much money is spent in healthcare from tobacco, gambling and alcohol related illnesses. The cost of healthcare for lung cancer, emphysema, alcoholism, liver damage, asthma is probably difficult to calculate exactly but it would be fairly high. The associated costs to the community through gambling addiction would also be fairly high.

Sometimes it is difficult to look at these issues in isolation. Taxes raised from these activities would be unecessary if at the same time, we reduced government spending on defence and unnecessary wars like Iraq. Even George Bush said in his final speech that he was sorry that no WMDs were found in Iraq, the premise for which war was waged.

Not to mention the money spent on schemes that make governments appear to be doing something about a particular issue but in reality do not much good at all.

Could it be that a democratic society which is managed well and would include more input from its citizens would not need revenue gained from activities like gambling, smoking and drinking.

I have to agree with you Pelican. Street and domestic violence would almost be unherd of so less police and welfare are needed. I have two teenagers living unsupervised next door, one 14 a girl and the other 17 her brother. Through the holidays 12 boys and three girls have been camping there unsupervised - mother pay the rent. The amount of alcohol in the form of vodca laced and pure rum they drink I have had to call the police at 3 in the morning because of the yahoo noise disturbance and screeching burn outs they do across my drive and in the street.

stop the grog and pornogrqaphy in Aboriginal communities and you will save millions immediately on Health, Policing, sexual abuse centres, royal flying doctors. By all means enjoy your grog rehctub but don't fool yourself that you are doing society a favour by indulging. You sound like an old mate of mine who was convinced the gambling industry did more good than harm. Nice to wear blinkers instead of looking a bit harder to face reality of broken homes, bankrupt people, hungry kids and violence. I know many people who are lifelong dependent on welfare (taxpayers) due to smoking pot, drinking grog and gambling.