Eat My Tax
The lifecycle of a speculative tax.
October 2nd 2011 (BBC):
Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world’s first fat tax – a surcharge on foods that are high in saturated fat.
Butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and processed food are now subject to the tax if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat.
October 2nd, 2011 ( National Obesity Forum)
Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said: “It is not a question of whether we should follow the Danes’ lead – we have to. If we don’t do anything about it, by 2050, 70% of the British population will be obese or overweight and that would result not only in the downfall of the NHS but also of our national workforce.”
October 4th 2011 (Guardian):
Danish consumers have criticised the move, which has left many retailers complaining of excessive bureaucracy.
Cameron said the introduction of a similar idea in the UK should not be ruled out.
“I think it is something that we should look at,” he told 5 News during a round of broadcast interviews at the Tory conference in Manchester. “The problem in the past when people have looked at using the tax system in this way is the impact it can have on people on low incomes.
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“Don’t rule anything out, but let’s look at the evidence and let’s look at the impact on families,” he added.
October 23rd 2011 (New Scientist):
THE Danish government’s now infamous “fat tax” has caused an international uproar, applauded by public health advocates on the one hand and dismissed on the other as nanny-state social engineering gone berserk.
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Denmark has long used the tax system to achieve health goals. It has taxed candy for nearly 90 years, and was the first country to ban trans-fats in 2003.
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Obesity rates may be low by US standards, but they used to be lower – 9.5 per cent in 2000. Life expectancy in Denmark is 79 years, at least two years below that in Japan or Iceland. The stated goal of the tax policies is to increase life expectancy as well as to reduce the burden and cost of illness from diet-related diseases.
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Let us congratulate Denmark on what could be viewed as a revolutionary experiment. I can’t wait to see the results.
Aside: Did that Candy Tax from the 1920s work? Let’s compare some similar countries.
Life Expectancy at Birth (Wikipedia, UN Figures for 2005-2010): (*)
Italy 82.0
Iceland 81.8
Sweden 80.9
France 80.7
Norway 80.2
UK 80.1
Austria 79.8
Netherlands 79.8
Greece 79.5
Belgium 79.4
Malta 79.4
Germany 79.4
Finland 79.3
Channel Islands 79.0
Cyprus 79.0
Ireland 78.9
Luxembourg 78.7
Denmark 78.3
November 10th 2012 (BBC):
The Danish government has said it intends to abolish a tax on foods which are high in saturated fats.
The measure, introduced a little over a year ago, was believed to be the world’s first so-called “fat tax”.
Foods containing more than 2.3% saturated fat – including dairy produce, meat and processed foods – were subject to the surcharge.
November 10th, 2012: (Metro):
Authorities have now said that the tax has had adverse effects on the economy, inflating food charges and putting Danish jobs at risk.
It also saw some Danes cross the border into Germany in order to stock up on cheaper goods there.
A number of supermarkets have said that once that tax has been abolished, they will cut their prices.
That damned reality thing. It always interferes with the best designed plans of sociologists, medics and politicians.
How long before the next one comes along?
And I wonder what the whole exercise cost?
Perhaps they should have spent it on exercise bicycles?.
(*) Strictly, this is stats-mangling, since there may be an effect not detectable on overall trends, but it makes the point.
Photo Source: Welcome to My Copenhagen.
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1
November 11, 2012 at 15:59 -
Hi Matt–thanks for your interesting post.
Next time how The Smoking Tax has failed to curb smoking, perhaps? I know Anna smokes (as do I). Still, it is hard to ignore the evidence it is BAD for YOU.
Passive smoking is a different matter. Never understood how ‘consumption’ was measured. Maybe just my ignorance.
There is some hope for addicts. E-cigs deliver the nicotine without the tar and gunk. And it is pretty much like actual smoking. Of course no one has yet gotten around to evaluating the risks. All I can report, entirely anecdotally, is the lungs feel better. I also feel more virtuous. That may be entirely spurious.
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November 11, 2012 at 16:23 -
It would appear then that codex alimentarius is back in vogue, keep the minions from eating good food.
I have lived off beef for the last 10 years after a 7 year stint at vegetarian…never again. -
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November 11, 2012 at 16:35 -
Well spotted Matt.
New Scientist:
“THE Danish government’s now infamous “fat tax” …….. The stated goal of the tax policies is to increase life expectancy as well as to reduce the burden and cost of illness ………”Old scientist:
Applying a modicum of common sense leads me to conclude that increased life expectancy, increases not decreases, the burden & cost of illness. -
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November 11, 2012 at 17:10 -
‘Fat tax’, very strange in deed, especially when some essential vitamins are fat soluble – that is we need the fat to help with the absorption of thos vitamins into the system.
I assume this is what you get when arts or political graduates are running things.
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November 12, 2012 at 01:17 -
And hormones are fat soluble. And the body makes sex hormones, testosterone for example, from cholesterol. And human body fat is…… an animal fat (very similar to pork fat).
Anyone on a calorie restricted diet is consuming their own body fat. Therefore anyone on a diet should be taxed per kg they lose. Who knew Weight Watchers would be a major source of tax revenue.
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7
November 11, 2012 at 17:16 -
Among the cheerleaders for the fat tax last year was Professor Sir Nicholas Wald – though he advocated going further and introducing a ‘SASS’ tax on salt, sugar, alcohol and saturated fats, which would, he said, be replaced by low-calorie alternatives – or FOFF, as I prefer to think of it (that’s F*** Off, Fun-Free).
The professor has risen to fame on the back of his call for statins-for-all and the ‘polypill’; medicate the whole population, he argues, and, as long as it saves more lives than are lost as a result of side-effects, you can call it a success. Since the exact number of people who fail to die thanks to the mass medication must, of necessity, be hypothetical, it is hardly likely to impress families who lose a real-life human being as a direct result of drugs given on blanket prescription.
If his Danish equivalents have such a cavalier approach to statistics in relation to real life, it’s small wonder the situation you describe has arisen.
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November 11, 2012 at 17:32 -
How did someone with a name like Tam Fry get a job as spokesman for the National Obesity Forum?
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November 11, 2012 at 18:03 -
I really love this bit: “A number of supermarkets have said that once that tax has been abolished, they will cut their prices.”
.. fat chance that’ll happen, we’ll be stuck with the old higher prices regardless. Same thing happened when the corn prices spiked a few years ago and subsequently dropped again, we never did see a similar reduction in the prices on bread.
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November 11, 2012 at 18:19 -
As a result of the Scottish health tax, look what’s happening:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-20279771
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November 11, 2012 at 18:36 -
Must say I rarely see obese people, plenty that are a bit overweight but not much obesity in adults or children so where is this epidemic of obesity? I have seen it in America in some places but not here. The only time I ever gained much weight was when I stopped smoking, I decided I preferred the risk of smoking to the weight! Anyway I don’t want to extend my life, only as long as I can look after myself in my own home and I certainly don’t want to end up in a nursing home waiting to die while the Government helps itself to the home I worked for 45 years to buy.
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November 11, 2012 at 21:35 -
Most GPs are now experts and can tell you instantly that you need to lose weight (even after a phone conversation). Even without looking at you (hard to tear their eyes from the computer screen) they know you must lose weight. The epidemic is the silliness of the levels/numbers given in the ubiquitous BMI – an adjustment upwards of any normal weight so that normal becomes obese (waaaay above fat) and slightly fat (big-boned) is very obese. [fanfare] …in one foul swoop half the population is obese.
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November 12, 2012 at 11:20 -
It is odd, though; where are they getting the figures? I’m the only person who knows exactly how much I weigh, unless the government are spying on my bathroom scales, and I assume it’s the same for most people, so there has to be a great deal of extrapolation going on to get national BMI rates.
Telling you to lose weight, along with cutting down on red meat and giving up smoking and drinking, have become the sacred NHS commandments, handed down from the Sinai-like eminence of the Department of Health and applied indiscriminately as an article of faith.
In our family, the record for being unwillingly evangelised is held by a seven-and-a-half stone woman who neither smokes nor drinks (apart from the occasional half-glass of red wine with a meal) and is still working part-time at 76 in a very active outdoor job. In hospital for emergency surgery, she spent two weeks being repeatedly visited by dieticians and by consellors offering her advice on giving up smoking and alcohol and informing her of the benefits of regular exercise.
(In the meantime, she contracted a post-operative infection caused by a lack of proper cleaning in the ward; that’s NHS priorities for you!)
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November 11, 2012 at 21:14 -
There are certain products from Denmark that never fail to make me a little chubby…
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November 11, 2012 at 21:30 -
I’m pretty sure this cycle was reflected in an episode of The Simpsons (or some similar marvellous cartoon reflecting life) and Bart (I think) became a smuggler of tins of ‘transfat’ across the border.
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November 11, 2012 at 21:33 -
Ah, Health Nazis! I believe the occasional contributor and good friend of mine Randy Hack has posted on this before. The great disease of modern Western society is indeed weight. The chief cause is not fats, though poor quality nasty stuff such as they stuff into margerine is not very good; it is sugar. The body copes quite well with fat, because it is designed so to do. What it does not cope with is sugar in whatever form: pasta, potatoes, fruit, coca cola, chips, alcohol (sadly), pepsi crisps and pizza and above all, bread.
Add on that lack of excercise and the nasty e numbers in processed food and the result is a mess.
Want to have a lean, healthy population. Ban fast food, ban ready meals and ban playstations.
And then leave them to it!
I healthy diet of fish, chicken, vegetables, olives and the odd fag is available to all – if they choose to adopt it.-
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November 12, 2012 at 01:20 -
I agree, but try telling that to a NHS doctor
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November 12, 2012 at 00:34 -
I am surprised by the normally astute commenters here, the REAL reason the tax was rescinded is quite clear.
“Authorities have now said that the tax has had adverse effects on the economy, inflating food charges and putting Danish jobs at risk.
It also saw some Danes cross the border into Germany in order to stock up on cheaper goods there” (Again reducing government revenue)The government was LOSING TAX REVENUE, it was nice of them to reveal that they really did not give a f*ck about consuming saturated fats though because as Gildas and ivan reveal there is a school of thought they are actually very beneficial (especially for weight loss).
One wonders if the sensible Danes will soon come to a similar decision concerning windmills.
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November 12, 2012 at 00:50 -
Science does not support the hypothesis that saturated fats cause heart disease. Heart disease is caused by vascular inflammation. The leading causes of inflammation are wheat, excessive carbohydrates and most vegetable oils (and not eating enough oily fish makes the inflammation worse).
Putting restrictions on saturated fats, especially animal fats, would open up governments/health services to the largest law suit in legal history; whilst raising the rates of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hormone imbalances (impotence/infertility), dementia…..
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November 12, 2012 at 07:34 -
Looks like an interesting future…
By 2050 90% of the population will be Muslim and 70% will be obese…
Statistics huh.
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November 12, 2012 at 11:10 -
Since we cannot look after our old with dignity and compassion and governments are all at sea about the ageing population and what to do about it- how long do you want to live after retirement? I’ll take the median life expectancy from ‘Wiki’- seems long enough to keep free of state control and loss of faculties for most. Now I’ll enjoy my meal thank – trimmings an all.
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November 12, 2012 at 18:49 -
After “Fat Tax” – what about having a “Paedo-bread Tax”?
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A TV advert showing a teenager posing provocatively in skimpy school uniform has prompted a barrage of complaints from parents.
Advertising watchdogs said the 30-second commercial for Kingsmill fruit and fibre bread had triggered claims that it ‘sexualises children’.
The advert shows a schoolgirl in the kitchen at breakfast. Her younger brother then relays a warning from their father: ‘If you think you’re going to school in that skirt, you can think again.’ \…\ ‘Perhaps it’s because paedophilia is very much in the public consciousness at the moment but shouldn’t this be illegal? Nearly seeing up the skirt of a minor?’ The advert featuring 18-year-old Ms Berwin and nine-year-old Lewis Hardaker is the latest in a £4 million campaign to promote Kingsmill bread
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[It is ‘probably’ safe to look at the Daily-Waily article – even though it features a clip of the Commercial, and several other images of ADULT involved]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231167/Fury-Kingsmill-advert-sexualises-children-Shows-skimpy-teenager-posing-provocatively-skimpy-school-uniform.html
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