I recently found a novel proposal invoking an unconventional use of credit cards. Germany shows the was by assigning a socially productive role to the shopping cards. Smokers in Germany will have to use credit cards proving they are aged at least 16 when buying cigarettes from vending machines from 2007. Anyone under 16 will automatically be rejected. This has been done in order to crack down on tobacco use among teenagers. The measure comes as part of a raft of measures that have driven down the smoking rate among German adolescents to 20 percent among 12 to 17 year olds in 2005 from 28 percent in 2001. Don't you think others need to learn from Germans?