Higher taxes on alcohol

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am i the only person who thinks that this would just turn into another money maker for the government? people arent going to drink less because its more exensive, in face if teens are anything like i was when i was younger they will spend less money on essentials.... such as food in some instances.

alcohol is expensive enough as it is, i cant get a pint for less then £2.40 in my town, and thats in a wetherspoons.

in my opinion, the only way to curb the problem is to curb the alohol content, your average alcopop is %5.5 the same as strongbow and stella, whereas fosters and carling as around %3.5 - 4. kids drink the strong stuff because they think it makes them big (big not being used in a hight or size context but as a reference to showing off)

 

Raise taxes on alco-pops and the kiddies will go back to drinking cider, archers, malibou and other non-alco pops as they did when I was a teenager. Raise taxes on everything, and the drinks industry will be up in arms as people will just pop accross to France more often.

Bad idea that won't work and we'll then get yet more stories about how customs and excise is being diddled out of money by people buying abroad.

I agree, reduce the permitted alcohol content to around 4%. I think it was Caffreys that was reduced due to demand of it's customers cos you couldn't drink much without getting drunk.

 

How dare she? How dare she? Higher taxes on alcohol? As if students such as I aren't in enough debt as it is?

This is supposed to be a LABOUR government, friend of the workers and working class. Yet instead, the facists want to raise taxes on booze?

Don't these ^(*^& jackasses know that kids are far more likely to get a bottle of vodka from an offie, instead of buying cans of beer and lager. I bloody did...

 

Yeah, I tend to agree that increasing the price of the alocoholic beverages is not going to significantly reduce consumption. I think that in order to raise the price to a point where it would be difficult for kids to purchase the stuff, it would also make it difficult for anyone to purchase the stuff. I also have a problem with only raising the taxes on a particular type of alcoholic beverage - in this case the "fizzy" drinks. It would appear that such an action would place the company manufacturing such beverages at a competitive disadvantage compared to other alcoholic beverage producers, some of which contain even more alcohol than their drinks do.

 

Well in my country,they raised the taxes on alcohol to make people consume less...
But they just consumed more

 

This is outrageous, keep your greedy hands of my beer dammit !

 

The Idea is that Alcohol is a luxury good with dangerous side effects. If that has even a small reduction on consumption then mission accomplished. But I think you're right that it will be a cash grab...

 

It has always been highly debatable whether or not a sin tax will actually serve as an effective deterrent.

We had a major cigarette tax increase here back in the 90s and the next thing you knew all the smokers were smoking tax free smuggled cigarettes. The government lost tax revenue, people's behaviour was only modified to make them engage in illegal behaviour, and the First Nations tribes who were doing most of the smuggling were laughing all the way to the bank. The government eventually dropped the tax back down to its original level.

There is one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on though - sin taxes are definitely regressive so the poor end up paying a heck of a lot more as a % of income compared to the rich. I guess it helps somewhat in balancing out the progressive income tax system.

 

On the other hand in here the alcohol tax was lowered when Estonia joined EU in fear of increase of imported alcohol. Surprisingly alcohol consumption has increased significantly since then and most politician seem to be inclined to return to the higher tax rate and labeling the first decrease a mistake. Personally I don't mind high taxing for alcohol it's not like it would drive anyone to bankrupcy. I would like to see a decrease on the alcohol taxes for bars and clubs though, most people tend to be drunk allready when they get to bars and sometimes the expensive prices keep them at home.

 

My idea is that higher taxes make it that people who don't really care that much will care even less. Students and other people without a steady secure income will have to cut down on booze. People who care only for alcohol will still find some money to buy it for. Or steal it. They won't give up at any rate and all their resources will go into alcohol, as always. The mid range is people with mid incomes, so while it will make a couple of family fathers take on crosswords instead, it won't really solve the problem. Or maybe it will in the long run. Can anyone provide such information? Besides, a glass of beer is a normal drink and wine is a normal dinner ingredient. The sooner kids learn to take it like adults, the better.

 

Are you serious? (No smilies so you must be...) Should people really start drinking alcohol because it's expected from them?

Isn't that what started this whole thing in the first place? Youngsters start drinking beer and funny colored sweet alcoholic beverages, because that's what's expected from them when they turn sixteen. Raise the prices of such beverages and nobody will think: 'Perhaps I shouldn't drink this stuff'; they're only interested in where to get more money so they can afford it.

Kids shouldn't be pushed into drinking alcohol, not by their peers or their parents. Don't get me wrong, people should be allowed to drink because they like the taste or what it does to them, and I have no trouble with the fact that sixteen years old can by alcohol in my country, but just because they can, doesn't mean they should. Alcohol is still a mind altering substance, and drinking alcohol shouldn't be considered the default option. The sooner kids learn to make their own decisions the better.

 

I agree with Mesmero...
But in my country legal age for booze is 18... So kids use fake identity here....

 

Hmm... I really don't see anything wrong with a higher tax on alcohol (and this is coming from a student). As long as the money raised from it is put in helping reduce the spill over costs from alcohol - which knowing governments, I doubt it will be.

 

It's different when kids get a cup of wine or a glass of beer with dinner like everyone and different when they are expected by their peers to get blasting drunk at parties. Five glasses are a problem, but I don't see why a fifteen year old shouldn't get one glass. Alcohol is not the problem. Getting drunk is. Alcohol is a normal thing with legitimate purposes. Stigmatising it as "that stuff" doesn't help anything. Perhaps it even increases its appeal by adding the forbbiden fruit factor. I wonder what you read my "like adults" as. It surely doesn't mean, "like some adults." Some adults clearly don't take alcohol as adults. Puking all over the place and getting raped with a toilet brush by similarly predisposed drinking mates is not a sign of maturity. Seeing alcohol as a normal part of life and being able to use it wisely is. And I surely didn't mean any kind of pushing... where did you get the coercion ideas? Whenever I say something like this, people assume I presuppose coercion.

 

Are you serious !? teenagers staring to drink alcohol because that's expected from them I think the only way to turn them off something is to tell them that that's what they are expected to do .

A big reason for the overconsumption of alcohol in US is teenagers being eager to experiment with the forbidden fruit. Make alcohol something ordinary, which they can have at any dinner (in moderation, of course), and it would lose much of its appeal.

 

I agree with Chev here, alcohol isn't the problem, getting drunk is. Clearly it's fine but if you have too much of it then OBVIOUSLY there's going to be a problem. Same goes with food consumption, number of hours sitting on your a$$ etc.

Doesn't mean that getting drunk isn't fun

 

It is a standard tactic in my country. They say they only want to reduce the consumption, but I think they think about only the money. Remove your hands from my

 

Like Rotku, I have no problem with higher taxes on alcohol. Alcohol is a luxury item. My main issue would be to ensure that the money collected is used properly (not just to pay for administration).

 

If the money went to AA groups or to help teens who have alcohol problems, would that make the higher taxes more desirable (or tolerable)?

 

Chev, when you said kids, I thought of people around the twelve years old (the fifteen you mentioned in your second post is close to the legal drinking age here in Holland. Nobody here frowns upon the fact if a father gets his kid a glass of beer at that age). Drinking wine at dinner 'like adults' is something like two or three glasses. I interpreted your opinion as that people below the age of fifteen should start to drink a few glasses of wine at dinner, just because it is considered the 'normal' thing to do. (Not necessarily pushing, but offering it as the default option.)

Stigmatizing might be a harsh word, I meant it in the context of youngsters getting drunk for all the wrong reasons and kinda the outlook of young people on alcohol (I work with kids around the age of sixteen and often am amazed in a negative way at how they look at alcohol).

edit: typos

[ October 30, 2006, 00:40: Message edited by: Mesmero ]