Ministry of Propaganda - 04/Mar/2004: "Tax the Drinkers"
[Previous entry: "TV Licensing wasting money"] [Home] [Next entry: "Barcelona"]
Tax the Drinkers
The BBC reports that scientists are suggesting to increase alcohol tax to reduce alcohol consumption. They suggest a 10% increase could have a significant impact.
Apart from it being a quite certain vote loser and therefore unlikely to find much support by politicians, I have my doubts that it would be as successful as they claim. To my knowledge the UK already has some of the highest alcohol taxes and prices in Europe, yet it doesn't seem to have made much of an impact on alcohol consumption. If the tax increases I think a lot of people will just switch to cheaper (alcoholic) drinks, the main purpose of going out on a Friday or Saturday evening being getting drunk. And once they have drunk enough they probably won't care about the price anyway. Will it stop binge drinking? I very much doubt it.
But as it is a tax on all drink it will impact everyone who drinks alcohol, including those who drink moderately. While I enjoy the occasional whisky and also the occasional beer, I don't drink as much as to raise any health concerns whatsoever. Yet I would be hit by this tax increase as well, quite annoying as to my knowledge something like 60-70% of what I pay for a bottle of whisky is tax already...
I don't know how to solve the alcohol problem and change some peoples attitude to it, but I have my doubts that a tax increase is the right means for it.
End of entry
Entry trivia
- When writing this entry the weather was: Cloudy, warmer than the last few days
- When writing this entry I was listening to: BBC Radio 4
- I'm currently reading/have just finished reading this book/publication: The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security - Kevin D. Mitnick
- I recently visited this website/-page: Einbecker.net - Eingebeckert
- The last drink I had was/is: Milk (but I'll probably drink a whisky later)
Dodgy picture of the moment:
No alcohol involved here, just milk.
End of entry trivia
Spread the word:
Do you like this weblog? Do you think others might be interested in it? Then please tell a friend! Thank you.
Send me feedback about this entry:
The form below will send me an e-mail. To discuss in public, please use my discussion forum.