A tale of two taxes
A British medical conference is being told today that chocolate should be taxed in a bid to bring a growing obesity epidemic there under control. A Scottish GP by the name of David Walker said it was a “major player” in the problem and he believes that taxing it would raise its profile as an unhealthy food.
“My point is that it is not unusual for a person to eat a 225g bag of something like Minstrels while watching their favourite soap opera, and that’s just short of 1,200 calories – more than half the recommended daily intake for men and women,” he said. Sounds reasonable enough although self-control rather than taxation might be a better solution to the problem.
And speaking of self-control and taxation – the Irish Cancer Society wants the Government to slap a €2 tax on a packet of cigarettes in the upcoming maxi-budget saying that not only will it reduce the level of smoking – amongst younger people anyways – it will also raise around €400m each year in additional revenue.
As an ex, ahem, die-hard, smoker who thinks lighting up for the first time (thanks a lot Ciaran Morrisson!) was the stupidest thing I have ever done in my entire life , I think it’s a great idea.
I recently worked out that in the 20 years that I smoked, I spend over 40 grand in today’s money on fags.
40 grand. Sigh.
