We Americans have many, many faults, but one thing we’ve actually been pretty good about is cutting back on smoking. When I was a kid everyone smoked, and now it’s pretty rare.

I think part of it is actually an unexpected benefit of capitalism. Restaurants and bars used to fight indoor smoking bans tooth and nail because all their cust6were smokers and they didn’t want to lose them. But then when the bans would happen, business actually increased - especially for bars. Turned out lots of people wanted to be able to grab a drink after work but didn’t want to go home smelling like cigarettes.

So now business groups other than big tobacco support the bans, which has resulted in a huge decline of social smoking.