Denmark's New Fat Tax

From Newser:

(Newser) – An extra 39 cents on a pack of butter. Twelve cents on a bag of chips. Denmark has become the latest country to levy a "fat tax" (Hungary has a similar one), adding about $1.32 in cost per pound of saturated fat in any food that contains more than 2.3% saturated fat, reports the Guardian. The tax is expected to raise some $220 million a year and cut saturated fat consumption by close to 10%. The country already banned the use of trans fats in foods, back in 2004. 

Ironically, despite Danes' reputation for being big fans of butter and bacon, the country is relatively slim, with a 10% obesity rate, well below the European average of 15% (not to mention the United States' 33%). "All these things need to be looked at, but saturated fats have a higher calorie content than carbohydrates. I don't think you can do everything all at once," said a doctor who used to be chairman of a national obesity group.

This is how you get rid of the food that kills people. You want to eat shitty food that will clog your arteries faster than you can say lipo? Fine, then pay extra for that shit. It's called a disincentive. And for fucks sake we should try it in America. I know this will never happen in America because we love being fat and eating dog shit but that is sort of the point.

Good god

This is the type of shit that makes me want to move to Europe or something. It isn't about big government or politics or anything. It is about using policy to create revenue and protect consumers. If an apple costs fifty cents and a bag of chips is $2.50 then what are you going to do? Of course buy the chips, but you maybe just maybe will think about the apple before you don't buy it. It would be a start.

And by the way, searching Google for "fat people" to get a pic for this post was one of the scariest decisions I've made in about three weeks.