Magnifico, great, I thoroughly agree. In fact, in "The art of speaking and writing", Olof Lagercrantz argues that that is the whole reason for the development of the corporation: to become a psychopathical moneymaking machine, devoid of morals and ethics. Hence the success of stockmarkets as a medium for financial transactions.

In every transaction, including the sale of labour to an employer, two parties must (in a free market) agree on price and conditions. Indeed as misfit points out, sometimes one party is in a better bargaining position that the other. I suppose this might be down to culture, legislation, and other stuff.

:) I'm not prepared to fast. I am however prepared to do just about anything else. The strongest patches work for about 29 hours, then its over. There is no cure in patches, only temporary relief, and thats good enough for me at the moment. No cure exists - if it did, i believe that that cure would spread through the world in a matter of months, like a virus, albeit a good one.

Theres an old movie called "the man who stopped smoking". In the end je quits, but summarizes: the sum of vices is constant. I.e. stop with one vice means starting with another. Food for thought? :)

..and my philosophy, for what its worth: smoking not just causes sickness - it's a sickness in itself.

My experience: been using patches on and off for about 8 years. Stopping with patches leads to relapse. Basically, its one or the other - but not neither.

Thanks very much!