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Your argument ignores real politics. In my country we are constantly having questions about why isn't more money available to help children with autism or old people with dementia, etc. At the same time people complain that taxes are too high. One of the ways to square that circle would be to look at spending on the treatment of avoidable diseases. Particularly ones that affect only a minority (ie not people like us) but yet cost a lot to treat.



If you want to go down that road then I suggest you start looking at injuries for spare-time daredevils without insurance first (and professional athletes, but I think most of those have private insurance anyway).


The group that most commonly get mentioned are smokers. The reply smokers give is to mention that they are taxed so heavily for their habit that they are paying their way. It's also mentioned that because they die younger, they effectively subsidise other people's old age.


Yeah, that's a nice way to solve it actually, but I suspect that taxing sexual intercourse based on how frequent it happens and with whom it happens might just be a bit difficult. :P


How do you separate the HIV+ people that engaged in 'risky' (by whatever definition you apply) behavior from those who didn't?


I'm not suggesting you do but if society were ever to do that, I'd imagine that people who were avowedly promiscuous would be viewed as risk takers.




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