let's compare
This year started with raised prices for gas, electricity, heating. Of course, everything else will follow. Our government, in its thirst for money, has decided, after overtaxing cigarettes and alcohol, the usual "suspects", that we need other taxes too. So here came the idea of a tax for fast food, sodas and sweets. Because they're bad for our health and the government cares! I can't help thinking of the communist times where the idea of "rational food" has been institutionalized and it was decided that a person only needs 1 kilo of sugar, cooking oil and meat per month because the fats are bad for health and lead to cardiac disease. So let's see:
todaycommunist timesofficial reason: hamburgers, soda and sweets are bad for our healthofficial reason: sugar, meat, oil and butter are fat and they increase the risk of cardiac diseasegovernment action: hamburgers, soda and sweets are over taxed. (I think chicken may be just as dangerous because its price increased 20% in the first days of the year. This is only the beginning!)government action: the food disappeared from stores and the "fatty" foods became available only on ration cards with which you could only buy a certain amount of food. (instant memory: bread was "rationalized" too: one person, no matter if they were children or working adults, could only have half a bread loaf per day.)real reason behind this: the government wants more of our money and it gets it from the new taxes we have to pay!real reason behind this: the government wanted more money and exporting our food instead of consuming it on the Romanian market was the way.
I think it's the same thing: the government invades people's lives and kitchens, taking their money as they go, and telling them it's for their own sake! I eat like 2 hamburgers per year, I gave up sodas last summer because I had some medical problems anyway, but the idea of the government butting in in these private choices for food surely upsets me. And I think it's just a call for more "contributions" from the giants of fast food, cold beverages and sweets industry. The political campaign for presidency and the costs of falsifying the results of the elections has to be paid by somebody!
todaycommunist timesofficial reason: hamburgers, soda and sweets are bad for our healthofficial reason: sugar, meat, oil and butter are fat and they increase the risk of cardiac diseasegovernment action: hamburgers, soda and sweets are over taxed. (I think chicken may be just as dangerous because its price increased 20% in the first days of the year. This is only the beginning!)government action: the food disappeared from stores and the "fatty" foods became available only on ration cards with which you could only buy a certain amount of food. (instant memory: bread was "rationalized" too: one person, no matter if they were children or working adults, could only have half a bread loaf per day.)real reason behind this: the government wants more of our money and it gets it from the new taxes we have to pay!real reason behind this: the government wanted more money and exporting our food instead of consuming it on the Romanian market was the way.
I think it's the same thing: the government invades people's lives and kitchens, taking their money as they go, and telling them it's for their own sake! I eat like 2 hamburgers per year, I gave up sodas last summer because I had some medical problems anyway, but the idea of the government butting in in these private choices for food surely upsets me. And I think it's just a call for more "contributions" from the giants of fast food, cold beverages and sweets industry. The political campaign for presidency and the costs of falsifying the results of the elections has to be paid by somebody!