Like smoking.

Then, there are those bits and pieces of economic wisdom that are more folly than fact; once started, they lead you to powerful and more addictive fallacies.

The immutable truth of government power is that any government that has the power to outlaw a particular activity also retains the power to make that activity mandatory.

One Chinese province is putting this notion to use, by making cigarette smoking mandatory in an effort to keep tax revenues high, and to protect local tobacco companies from losing market share to imports.

You heard right — the Chinese are being undercut in price for cigarettes.