A couple of days ago I wrote a post about how other countries are waaay ahead of us when it comes to overall health and well being. You'd think a country as great as the old U.S. of A would at least be in the top 5 in some major categories, but nope. Overall, we're pretty much a nation of fatties.
The way they're doing things over in Norway continues to intrigue me. Politicians and doctors are obsessed with averting becoming a nation of out of shape people (the U.S. being the prime example of how they DON'T want to become).
The Norwegians are trying very hard to avoid being like the U.S. - we spent 10% of our health care expenditures, $174 billion, on diabetes-related illnesses.
This has the Norwegian government considering a "fat tax" on sugar and junk food (they already tax soft drinks). Of course, what they're trying to do is raise the cost of junk food to discourage public consumption.
As you could imagine, this "fat tax" has raised some debate. The question is whether this tax is appropriate or is it going to turn the Norwegian government into babysitters assuming that its citizens can't make their own decisions in regards to their own overall health and fitness.
Although I'm generally against government intervention in most cases and lean towards smaller government and less government involvement, this idea does intrigue me. I'm not sure there is anything wrong with trying to influence behavior by raising prices, but I'm also not sure that it would make any significant difference.
Should one's government work towards keeping it's population healthy or should everyone be left to make their own decisions without any nudges or influential actions from the government?
Post below and let me know what you think.
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