I am well aware of what you're saying and was before this comment. The smoker data is not applicable to obesity. Smokers die younger, but do not have extended and sustainably increased healthcare costs over their entire life span. They also don't have as many negative externalities such as simply consuming more resources; even gasoline and jet fuel consumption is increased due to obese passengers.
> Smokers die younger, but do not have extended and sustainably increased healthcare costs over their entire life span.
A popular furphy spread from questionable assumptions.
FYI
> A major report published in 2016 by the National Cancer Institute and World Health Organization concluded that in high-income countries, lifetime health care costs are greater for smokers than for non-smokers, even after accounting for the shorter lives of smokers.
Tobacco issues and health care costs (with reference to some world class epidemiology studies) discussed at length here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25443387/