[ExI] Don't be a locavore fundamentalist

[Mirco Romanato]

Stefano Vaj ha scritto:
> 2009/9/27 Giulio Prisco (2nd email) <eschatoon at gmail.com 
> <mailto:eschatoon at gmail.com>>
> 
>     You say this as a joke, but the sad fact is that a food police would
>     be perfectly in character with the nanny-state dictatorship that our
>     societies are becoming.
> 
> 
> OTOH, I am not overly scandalised by taxes on tobacco, alcohol and 
> firearms, and I think we could live with a tax on soft drinks, which 
> serve no conceivable dietary purpose and may indirectly generate some 
> additional burden for a given country's health-related costs (exactly as 
> I could live with the application of the same model for the recreational 
> use of drugs...).
> 
> Only, one must pay attention to keep such taxes at the highest possible 
> level which still remains low enough not to allow a black-market economy 
> to flourish...

Stefano, if in Iran and Saudi Arabia exist a black market for alcohol 
and ham, there is no way. If they are not able to prevent this, no one 
will be able to prevent soft drink consumption.
Taxes high enough to discourage the consumption will always cause prices 
so high to encourage contraband. Look at the cigarettes at Naples.

Do you really want Mafia and Camorra and Triads to be able to tap money 
even from food and beverages for the masses? What is the cost to enforce 
this? They try in the UK schools, and they pay it with a lower interest 
in the children grades.

Mirco