About a year ago, I wrote about Denmark's so-called "Fat Tax". The government had decided to encourage people to avoid butter, cheese, bacon, whole milk, etc by making them more expensive. Due to the way the law was written, even lean cuts of beef were subject to the tax.Turns out, it didn't go so well. Some products reportedly had a 25% increase in price. People starting making pilgrimages to Sweden and Germany to stock up on their high-fat favorites. Retailers were burdened by having to compute taxes based on the percentages of saturated tax in their products. Just about everyone involved from the farmers to the consumers complained bitterly. And now, a year later, the Danish tax ministry decided to forget the whole thing, getting rid of an upcoming sugar tax in the bargain.
According to the Economist, physicians aren't happy that "politicians are putting the economy ahead of public health".
Photo © Martin Turzak
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Stupid Government.