http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article639218.ece
Why not just stick people into gulags? Then the State can make sure they’re always healthy.
That’s one thing that always gets me when I have online discussions with Europeans, in the States it’s generally considered unacceptable to use the tax code to modify the behavior of consenting adults while in Europe it’s not only accepted as valid but actively encouraged.
I always point out that that’s why they invented laws but that’s when the discussion breaks down, apparently it’s not OK to make someone a criminal for being overweight in this case but it is OK to price good and services out of the reach of a person so they truly have to pay for the ‘anti-social(ist)’ choices they make.
Oh, and yes, the US does have its share of ‘sin’ taxes…
A friend of mine sent me this article. He is from the US. We were both discussing how alien this mentality of taxing-to-discipline is. It actually ticked me (and him) off a little, sort of gives the impression that these people are nothing but pawns of the State for it to raise as it sees fit, with no individuality or willpower. In the US, you get health companies offering solutions for overweight individuals; entrepreneurs see an opportunity and seize it (this will no doubt be decried as ‘greed’.) In socialist Europe, we see a problem, so we decide to tax people to death, and then blame capitalism for high prices. [8-)] And then they have the gall to whine about ‘artificial’ scarcity.
It happens quite often in the US, its just more insidious. Since the tax code in the USA is so incredibly complex, no voter can really pay attention to how it is changed. This gives special interests (such as large corporate powers) the ability to influence the code for their own benefit in ways they could not under a simpler tax system. I would imagine among those lobbying for “junk food taxes” are producers of “healthier” foods. If such laws are passed, I can only imagine how food producers will fight over the definition of what the state decrees as being healthy enough to avoid taxation.
Ain’t this interesting. The nation with the most perfect socialist system, the nation with supposedly the most contented people in Europe, is the nation with the most obese men. I believe this is due to the fact that the socialist system is the most anti-masculine system (equating masculinity with independence) in the world, and by forcing the individual to kowtow to the arbitrary whims of the state, the individual is no longer the master of his/her fate. The government gives individuals the Rights, instead of the correct interpretation, stated by Ron Paul, that the Creator (or Nature in Jefferson/Franklin Deism) gives the Rights, and governments function is to guarantee they are not usurped. This “womanization” of society, leads to a great passivity in human beings, and since men can no longer be masters of their own fate, they turn to escapism and overconsumption to relieve the frustration. Thus the obsession with media involvement (film and television) and eating (obesity). Man can no longer realise his pursuit of happiness in the field of reality. His praxeological potency has been castrated by the collectivist state. And that is why men in this most socialist of all societies are chronically obese. The same phenomena is occurring in all the old capitalist societies that have been womanized with the mentality of socialist security. Its the Leviathan State vs Individual Freedom, and 90% are now so brainwashed on the side of the State, that the 10% capitalist remnant is facing total extinction.
The Ron Paul campaign is the natural response of human freedom to this spiritual degradation, as is the Mises Institute and these forum/blog discussions. From little acorns, mighty oaks do grow.
If people are thrown in jail for using cannabis, they should be thrown in jail for being obese. Then most of the socialists (Democrats and Republicans) in America would be in jail.