So the Portuguese government announced today that new taxes will come over unhealthy products: too much salt, sugar, alcohol and tobacco. Of course this is a joke, they just need the money and use this as an excuse, if they were really concerned about our health they could, for example, give tax benefits to those doing sports... How do you see this?
That's actually kind of awesome. I am from America and we don't do that but there are a lot of health and weight issues here and many people don't think twice about eating junk food all the time.
A junk food tax has been debated for a while in Canada. Strange versions of implementation have resulted from a patchwork of federal vs provincial taxes. As a result a doughnut is taxed as junk food (a luxury) but a half dozen or more are not taxed and considered food. I would like to see a zero tax where junk foods are taxed and the taxes be used to lower the price of healthy foods. The big issue with this is that "healthy" foods are not well defined. Breakfast cereals claim to be part of a healthy breakfast but often contain enrichments to make them less devoid of content.
Well, it's undefined enough for the government to tax whatever they want, but the thing is for me that they are not concerned at all about our health, they just want to make money because if they were concerned about our health they would give tax benefits for the good products and services and not only taxes for us to pay on the "bad" products.
Yeah I have never heard of this but it sounds incredibly stupid. I would take it further and say if they really cared about your health, they'd put more regulations in food. Many people don't eat healthy because it's either too expensive or don't know how. With all the fakes out there, how do you know what you're getting is really healthy? Also is it a really big deal to eat unhealthy food? It's our bodies. We can do what we want. It's not like doing drugs. A lot of people do unhealthy things in general anyway.
In theory, it sounds good if the extra revenue goes towards improving health through programs or getting rid of taxes on fresh fruit/produce. Something along those lines... But, we all know the United States government slips nonsense into proposed bills that has nothing to do with the original topic. Everyone may be all excited to pass this and not notice the bit they slip in about outlawing DVD rentals at county libraries. Sounds like Canadian lawmakers also like to play fast and loose and change the rules as they go...
Yes, that's what feel like too, they just make laws to benefit themselves and their friend and they cover them up like it's some benefit for the populations. Shame on them really, I don't know what we can do about this though, nothing?!
