I feel like it’s been a pretty shitty year for everyone for a myriad of reasons. As a nation we’ve always relied on sinking a few cold ones at the end of the day to make us feel right as rain again, but it looks like yet another thing we all enjoy is going to get taxed.
A new study by Deakin University has found that introducing new taxes on alcohol could drastically reduce consumption, and potentially lead to a healthier Australia.
“Alcohol is high in calories, with a pint of beer almost on par with a chocolate bar, so consumption can have a big impact on daily energy intake,” co-author Associate Professor Gary Sacks said.
“Currently different types of alcohol are all taxed differently, but under a uniform volumetric tax all drinks would be taxed based on alcohol content, meaning a significant price increase for some products.”
It looks like beer would shoot up by 28%, cask wine by a staggering 120% and bottled wine by 33%. Essentially, their means of reducing alcohol consumption is to just price it out of a lot of people’s price range.
Which begs the question what else can they apply this reasoning to? Should we tax pizza because some people get fat? Chocolate? I understand the reasoning for policing energy drinks and high amounts of sugar, but it’s a really slippery slope.
Another option is to target low-priced alcohol at $1.30 per standard drink, which would mean that there’s no such thing as cheap or expensive alcohol – just alcohol.
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