I live in Sweden, close to the Norwegian border.

The amount of visiting Norwegians every weekend is mind-blowing, Parking full of Teslas and long lines of people buying shit loads of candy, soft drinks and tobacco in amounts it looks like they are preparing for the apocalypse... so not sure if the actual and true Norwegian 'sugar intake' is at a all-time low....

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bv
Please do NOT turn this thread into a political discussion. Then I will simply close it.

There are more than 200 states/countries in the world. They do all have different politics on how to tax, and how to spend tax money. I am just documenting how the Norwegian tax is being set and spent. If you want to discuss tax politics and all of that then feel free to do that other places.

if this is aimed at me, then I apologize.

I didn't feel I was being overly political, I felt I was also just talking about how my own gov't taxes & spends also.

sorry...I guess I felt it was OK to bash on my own gov't a bit...sort of like family ("it's ok to pound on your own, but not anybody else's").

my bad.

everything else retracted....I'll stick to: "Whip! Whip!....PLAY IT!!"

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JoT839
I live in Sweden, close to the Norwegian border.

The amount of visiting Norwegians every weekend is mind-blowing, Parking full of Teslas and long lines of people buying shit loads of candy, soft drinks and tobacco in amounts it looks like they are preparing for the apocalypse... so not sure if the actual and true Norwegian 'sugar intake' is at a all-time low....

One can of snus (smokeless tobacco) is ridiculously more expensive in Norway (102 kroner vs. 23 kroner). If you live close by, sometimes you just have to go...

There is a high tax in Norway on tobacco, alcohol, sugar etc. It is common knowledge, through research, that the more expensive, and the less available something is, the less sales of such.

There will always be people who travel across borders to get stuff at a lower price i.e. less tax, but in general most people in a country how other things to do in life than to drive their cars across borders to get cheap and unhealthy goods.

Bjornulf

Uuääh I'm trying to forget about snus since 2014

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-11-24 22:35 by SomeGuy.

I wouldn't know if Snus is bad for your teeth or if it's tanning your teeth by the look of those teeth.
I know that cheese is very wrong

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liddas
Has increasing taxation on alcool & cigarettes ever reduced consumption of these products?

C

In the United States, cigarette smoking has dropped dramatically. A pack costs $10 in California. You could smoke yourself into the poorhouse.

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Pietro

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liddas
Has increasing taxation on alcool & cigarettes ever reduced consumption of these products?

C

In the United States, cigarette smoking has dropped dramatically. A pack costs $10 in California. You could smoke yourself into the poorhouse.

yeah, true - but there are a lot of other factors at play as well - smoking is essentially banned in most/all indoor facilities as well as tons of outdoor public places across tons of states...and people will call you out on it if you try to use in "banned" areas (ie. social-shunning)

I think once smoking got banned in bars (and people found out they REALLY liked that) was a huge part of the shift.

and, simply put, smoking is not as "socially acceptable" anymore....

if alcohol and/or sugar (or whatever) were viewed the same way, the rates of consumption would drop...but, that would have to coincide w a dramatic increase in price as well...hard-core smokers/drinkers/sugar-heads will always use, but high-prices deter the "casual user" (IMO)....

but, we're not there yet - alcohol is glamorized, not shunned...and sugar is in basically everything and the negative externalities aren't really addressed either.

is "snus" what Americans call "dip?" I tried that....once...age 13....barfed my face off and glad I did. Never tried it again.

These kinds of taxes are an odd thing, because by definition the government is profiting from something that is making people unhealthy. Also they tend to disproportionately impact people of lower income, at least in the U.S. That is why I don't support them.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-11-24 22:40 by ryanpow.

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ryanpow
These kinds of taxes are an odd thing, because by definition the government is profiting from something that is making people unhealthy. Also they tend to disproportionately impact people of lower income, at least in the U.S. That is why I don't support them.

that sounds just like "wars"...hmmm....I'm onto something.

cosmic.

I'm in favor of any tax with exception of property or inheritance taxes.

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JoT839
I live in Sweden, close to the Norwegian border.

The amount of visiting Norwegians every weekend is mind-blowing, Parking full of Teslas and long lines of people buying shit loads of candy, soft drinks and tobacco in amounts it looks like they are preparing for the apocalypse... so not sure if the actual and true Norwegian 'sugar intake' is at a all-time low....

The Guardian ran a follow up article on Nov. 23:

It seems unfair to call it a sweet shop. In the shopping center north of Charlottenberg in south-western Sweden, barely four miles from Norway and less than 90 minutes’ drive from Oslo, is a candy superstore.

Arrayed across 3,500 sq metres of floor space – half a football pitch – are aisle upon aisle of sugary treats, more than 4,000 products in all, from sour strawberries, liquorice laces and fruity gumballs to red rockets, Lion bars, M&Ms, Milky Ways and Oreos.

One of maybe 30 similar confectionery and soft drink stores lining the Swedish side of the border from south to far north, it is, said Matts Idbratt, operations manager for Gottebiten – which runs half of them – “the biggest sweet shop in the world. We think”.

Across the border, retailers were certainly smiling. The tax increase had “quite an impact on our sales”, said Idbratt, whose giant sweet emporium is part of a booming cross-border trade that earned Swedish businesses – some owned by Norwegian investors – SEK16.6bn (£1.3bn) last year, 10% more than in 2017.

Idbratt said Gottebiten, founded by three entrepreneurial brothers in 1997, had “seen more customers, and existing customers are buying more”. Norwegian shoppers made 9.2m trips across the border last year, according to Statistics Norway.

One major manufacturer, Hval, said this year the sugar tax increase had triggered a 27% slump in sales and forced it to lay off a third of the staff at one factory. “Politicians must understand that they have gone too far,” said the plant manager, Rune Forsberg.

The food and drink branch of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise, NHO, is lobbying for the sugar tax to be scrapped entirely, arguing it is outmoded, harmful to Norwegian industry, a boon for Swedish businesses across the border and – with sugar content and consumption both sharply down – no longer necessary.

Gottebiten candy superstore in Sweden



[Norwegians flock to Sweden to buy candy and sweets]

Ok How do the teeth of Scandinavians compare to the English? Ok i'm of Anglo-Saxon heritage and had lots of dental work performed for narcissim and white teeth ( a liitle grey tint ) I'm not trying to be a TV news anchor. Now if anyone in the Nordic region must eat candy at this rate - I recommend additional brushing.

Is it real sugar or HFCS?

In the USA HFCS has replaced sugar (cane sugar ie real sugar) in, what seems, everything - even ketchup.

One can find ketchup without HFCS and it's a bit more expensive.

The biggest reason HFCS is in everything is because of the corn subsidies, which is also connected to... ethanol gasoline, which is horrible for the environment and reduces gas mileage - which makes complete sense, of course, because if it made actual sense then no one would make enough money. Egas is cheaper than pure gas because of the corn subsidies. It's an endless tax payer racket.

The difference in mileage between the 2 kinds of gasoline is quite astounding.

Is HFCS healthier? Cows are fed corn (the plant as well as the fruit, as far as I'm aware). Cows don't eat corn in their natural existence, partly because... corn doesn't exist in nature and cows eat grass. Corn is in dog food and cat food and a lot of things.

It's the plastic of food.

People eat lots of corn, in many forms. Is it bad for people too?

I was a chainsmoker for 20 years, and even tobacco is extremely expensive, I was just glad it would benefit to hospitals and every other useful things. It's better to takeextra taxes on gasoline, tobacco, sugar, etc, than on milk, bread, and others things one doesn't need. And the money that the sociaty needs, must come from somewhere. Even was a broke student, and was chainsmoker, I had no problem with the taxes

The UK sugar tax (introduced by the Treasury rather than the Department of Health, so there's a clue) has resulted in a massive swing from soft drinks sweetened with sugar (safe, natural, consumed for thousands of years) to replacement products sweetened with the likes of stevia, saccharin, acesulfame-k and aspartame (synthetic, consumed for a few years).

A significant reduction in calories has been achieved.

Are these new ingredients safe? Let's hope so. However it is worth noting that, for example, the initial US animal feeding trials on aspartame were falsified and have never been repeated.

Here is the diet I recommend [www.youtube.com]

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johnnythunders
The UK sugar tax (introduced by the Treasury rather than the Department of Health, so there's a clue) has resulted in a massive swing from soft drinks sweetened with sugar (safe, natural, consumed for thousands of years) to replacement products sweetened with the likes of stevia, saccharin, acesulfame-k and aspartame (synthetic, consumed for a few years).

A significant reduction in calories has been achieved.

Are these new ingredients safe? Let's hope so. However it is worth noting that, for example, the initial US animal feeding trials on aspartame were falsified and have never been repeated.

Here is the diet I recommend [www.youtube.com]

I used to drink a lot of sodas, now I occasionally drink Pepsi Zero or diet sodas and zero sugar energy drinks, if I have one. I do wonder about those newer sugar substitutes in soda, you hope you're getting good information but big money can influence any lab report in their favor. But I do drink a lot of milk.

As someone sang

"I love my sugar but I love my honey too ...".

It’s not rocket science, moderation it’s that easy.

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The Sicilian
People eat lots of corn, in many forms. Is it bad for people too?

It's basically a filler with some benefits - any vegetable or fruit (corn is both, actually) will have some benefits nutritionally. Corn isn't much different from rice but it's even less better for you - it's not bad for you, but there are so many better things to eat.

Possibly the vegetative equivalent of the dumbing down of the masses.

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GasLightStreet

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The Sicilian
People eat lots of corn, in many forms. Is it bad for people too?

It's basically a filler with some benefits - any vegetable or fruit (corn is both, actually) will have some benefits nutritionally. Corn isn't much different from rice but it's even less better for you - it's not bad for you, but there are so many better things to eat.

Possibly the vegetative equivalent of the dumbing down of the masses.

Going a little off track here but there was a pretty funny (by modern standards) skit on SNL this week with Will Ferrell. Involved first Thanksgiving & the aftermath of eating corn was discussed. ><

video: [www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-11-27 06:01 by crholmstrom.

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Erik_Snow
I was a chainsmoker for 20 years, and even tobacco is extremely expensive, I was just glad it would benefit to hospitals and every other useful things. It's better to takeextra taxes on gasoline, tobacco, sugar, etc, than on milk, bread, and others things one doesn't need. And the money that the sociaty needs, must come from somewhere. Even was a broke student, and was chainsmoker, I had no problem with the taxes

Have you quit smoking? Hopefully so for your health, and if so how did you get off them?

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crholmstrom

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GasLightStreet

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The Sicilian
People eat lots of corn, in many forms. Is it bad for people too?

It's basically a filler with some benefits - any vegetable or fruit (corn is both, actually) will have some benefits nutritionally. Corn isn't much different from rice but it's even less better for you - it's not bad for you, but there are so many better things to eat.

Possibly the vegetative equivalent of the dumbing down of the masses.

Going a little off track here but there was a pretty funny (by modern standards) skit on SNL this week with Will Ferrell. Involved first Thanksgiving & the aftermath of eating corn was discussed. ><

video: [www.youtube.com]

HAHAHA!

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The Sicilian
Have you quit smoking? Hopefully so for your health, and if so how did you get off them?

4 years ago, I went over to e-cigarettes, which I do prefer - it was the opposite of a "loss" for me. Can finally smell again, no bad odour, can do it indoors, many diff. flavours, etc. And with 24 MG nicotine in my liquid....I get a LOT more nicotine than with them cancer-sticks yet still get great health benefits - and huge financial benefits. Of course it's better to quit everything....but I really don't mind, I won't quit coffee either, or salami. I'm no Gandhi
The cigarettes costed me about (not kidding) about 4400 US dollars a year, now I'm down to 600 US dollars, everything included, new equipments from time to time and all. Can't understand why anybody still smoke cigarettes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-11-28 09:38 by Erik_Snow.

smokin' e-cigarettes in cars....
the cheap way of pretending ya driving a dragster ….



ROCKMAN