Price as a weapon !

There is a thought buzzing about in political circles - that the selling price of low cost alcohol is too low and that creating a higher minimum price will help to curb binge drinking.

On that basis of thinking, we could easily curb the obesity epidemic by doubling the price of food.  If the price doubled, people could only afford to buy half of what they buy now - and that would be the end of obesity.

Of course this line of thinking is  punishing the greater majority of people for the sins of the minority.  It relies on imposing a draconian impost in the guise of solving a problem that only affects a small sample of the entire population.   The average person is urged to become a martyr and accept this impost as his or her contribution to the " common good ".

It seems that it is cask wine and " cleanskin " bottle wine that is in the do-gooders sights, but we had a taste of using price as a weapon some years ago - when what was termed " alco-pops " were hit with a massive price increase because it was claimed that it was becoming too popular with teenage girls.

The sale of alco-pops certainly diminished, but at the same time the sale of hard spirits rose accordingly, and the teenage girls quickly learned to mix their own cocktails.    Many experts claim that the alcohol intake actually increased because the users became " heavy handed " in creating their own " mix ".

Another interesting by-product of this idea of using price as a weapon.   What happens to the money surge between the old price and this new minimum price for alcohol ?     Back in the days of the alco-pops debacle this new tax - and it was just another way of taxing alcohol - got shot down by the high court.

The government claimed that it was simply too difficult to reimburse people who paid an illegal tax, so the money would be put to " good purposes " and used to " promote healthy living ".   Many suspect that it ended up in " consolidated revenue ".

So - here we go again !

It seems that governments never learn that those who ignore history are destined to repeat those same mistakes !