06.02.2008 3:19 pm
Who packs it in for a thousand bucks?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Metropolis, Ill., is offering its employees $1,000 if they quit smoking for one year, according to this AP account.
The move is sound economically for the city. Non-smoking employees typically miss fewer days because of illness. Smokers, meanwhile, cost employers nearly $1,500 more in health care each year.
The news account says a number of employee already have signed up. The question is: Will $1,000 motivate people to quit? Does it really make a difference?
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Eddie Roth writes about education and social justice. He recently joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, lived in the Shaw Neighborhood, where he was active in neighborhood affairs, and now have made it their home again. He also served a term on the St. Louis Police Board. When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
