As food consumption steadily increases around the world, so does world obesity rates. The health risks that obesity poses are what probably caused the Danish government to impose a “fat tax” on food high in saturated fat. Food containing more than 2.3% saturated fat are subject to a large tax at the expense of the Danish people.
Although the Danish government is acting out of goodwill to their people, the heavy tax only caused the Danish to hoard what they can and to possibly turn to alternate suppliers abroad, greatly hurting local businesses.
As with the Russian vodka problem, government intervention is not necessarily the most beneficial solution. By attempting to limit the population’s intake of these goods, they not only damage the local economy, but the people’s favour as well.
The choice to purchase “bad” food or not is entirely up to the consumer. Instead of merely raising prices to discourage people from purchasing items that have already become an essential part of their lifestyles, the Danish government should focus their efforts instead on health awareness campaigns.
4 replies on “The world’s first “fat” tax”
Looks like this will really hurt the Danish McDonalds ;).
Hahaha, yes. I think the Danish are pretty big on butter too; cheese, milk, butter, pizza, hamburgers…they all fall under the tax!
Cool article BTW.
Thank you!