Are cigarettes preventing an economic depression?

1. Cigarettes are highly addictive.
2. Drug addicts continue to consume their drug of choice despite higher prices, lower income, or loss of job (i.e., cigarettes are an inelastic good).
3. Continuous consumption = uninterrupted profits for tobacco companies.
4. Profit-laden tobacco companies have no need to cut costs of labor.
5. Unlike the auto industry and, seemingly, every other major industry in America, big tobacco isn't contributing to the ever-growing unemployment rate.

A tangential note: Continuous consumption of cigarettes also = uninterrupted tax revenue for the government.

So...keep on puffing?