Liquor turns off your brain's social intelligence and amplifies your brain's propensity towards violence and illicit deeds. Liquor also causes your body's cells to become more inclined to generate Cancer.
What a lovely drug Liquor is. You can get it at almost every store. The stupider a person is, the more likely they will use it.
Liquor is the leading cause of abortions because it causes idiots to cause unwanted pregnancy.
A Governments’ alcohol subsidies are harmful to public health say Nandita
Murukutla and Rebecca PerlJan. Each January, millions of people around the
world make resolutions to cut back on the amount of alcohol they drink;
many participate in the popular “dry January” pledge to give up alcohol
altogether for a month. Given the high societal cost of harmful alcohol
use, and the pandemic-driven increase in the use of alcohol, it’s a trend
that should be encouraged.
Changing personal drinking habits isn’t easy. The addictive nature of
alcohol aside, pervasive marketing of alcoholic products, their
availability, and social pressures to drink all contribute to alcohol
consumption. Governments also contribute to it by supporting the industry
with billions of dollars of alcohol subsidies to bring their products to
consumers.
We use the economist’s term “perverse” to describe these incentives
because they go against the interest of the public.
A new report from Vital Strategies, the global public health organization
we work for, exposes how the alcohol industry, like the tobacco and fossil
fuel industries, benefits from billions of dollars it gets in financial
incentives and alcohol subsidies from governments and development agencies
to increase its reach and profits. These incentives, which are used to
produce, market, and sell alcohol, contribute to a growing health burden:
Excessive consumption of alcohol is among the world’s leading causes of
death and disability, contributing each year to more than 3 million deaths
and other social ills.
As detailed in the new report, the health costs of excessive alcohol
consumption are staggering. It is a leading risk factor for
noncommunicable diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and
liver disease. It’s also the leading global risk factor for death and
disability for people ages 15 to 49. And it contributes to lost
productivity, road injuries, and deaths, as well as to homicides,
suicides, and domestic abuse.
It is short-sighted, if not foolhardy, for governments to give alcohol
subsidies to an industry with a total market value of more than $1.5
trillion in 2019. Yet the industry continues to benefit from significant
government-sponsored tax breaks, marketing deductions, and other practices
that promote alcohol use. Research shows that marketing deductions alone
increase heavy drinking and encourage children as young as 10 to start
drinking alcohol.
The Vital Strategies review showed that between 1995 and 2020, governments
and development agencies with headquarters in high-income countries often
gave incentives to companies producing and selling alcohol in low- and
middle-income countries, which tend to have the highest attributable
deaths due to alcohol and less-stringent alcohol regulations. Here are a
few examples:
Over the past three decades, the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development has invested more than $422 million in breweries in Central
and Eastern Europe, a region with some of the highest rates of harmful
drinking and high levels of disease attributable to alcohol.
The United Kingdom has actively promoted the global expansion of
U.K.-based alcohol companies around the world, including in Cameroon and
Sudan, via about $1.25 million in development assistance, and in India by
securing reductions in price controls or tariffs.
In Uganda, SABMiller leveraged a production subsidy of a local variety of
sorghum to encourage local farmers to grow and harvest it for beer
production. This subsidy led to increased production and sales of a new
low-cost beer, created 100 factory jobs, and was hailed for advancing
economic development. Yet the incentive also promoted the growth and sale
of beer in a country where alcohol use is the leading risk factor for
premature death.
These incentives create a triple burden for countries across the world:
lost revenue, increased alcohol consumption, and overwhelmed public health
systems. If we want to build a healthier world, these enticements need to
stop.
First, governments should use finances and fiscal policies to strengthen
health systems rather than subsidize alcohol companies, and reallocate the
savings or new revenue from taxes to enhance health budgets.
Second, incentives that can be harmful to health should be carefully
phased out, as has been done with tobacco and, to a lesser extent, fossil
fuels.
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Third, governments and the development community must be more transparent
and intentional about collecting and reporting data on the economic
incentives, like alcohol subsidies, they offer to industries. Countries
should consider whether incentives are health positive or health negative.
While the imperative of companies, including the alcohol industry, will
always be to increase their markets and profits, governments need to be
ever watchful and responsive to the evolving ways in which their societies
suffer from unhealthy products. Consider, for instance, how the
coronavirus pandemic has been used for commercial gain. Brazil brewer
Karsten, for example, created an ad that urges consumers to follow three
steps to survive the pandemic: “Isolate, use sanitizer, and drink beer for
fun.”
As we start a new year, government and development leaders globally should
make their own resolution and stick to it: Commit to protecting the health
and welfare of people, and ensure that their actions — even those cast as
development aid — do good, not harm. Nandita Murukutla is vice president
for global policy and research at Vital Strategies, where Rebecca Perl is
vice president for partnerships and initiatives.
The liquor industry already enjoys close to $1 billion every year in
federal tax loopholes. Two obscure federal tax provisions, known inside
the Beltway as “rum cover over” and 5010, provide significant financial
benefit to big liquor, all funded by taxpayers. These companies are more
than happy to charge high prices in the U.S. but then siphon off their
profits, even as consumers fight through the pain of inflation. Where do
these self-serving profits go? Investments in other countries like Mexico,
France, Ireland, and others.
Big liquor is laughing all the way to the bank. Company executives
gathered in New Orleans recently to toast massive gains in market value
and sales volume. It’s not an industry in trouble. The billions in
giveaways must stop. Now.
Federal lawmakers have previously introduced legislation targeting rum
cover over, and we should continue to re-examine these issues to shed
light on who really benefits from billions in tax loopholes: big liquor
companies or American communities’ economies across the country. It’s easy
to decide where the benefits should be going. Our communities are weighed
down by the remnants of a devastating pandemic on top of inflation. Local
businesses and workers are still climbing out from pandemic hits on their
bottom lines and pocketbooks.
These local businesses are the key drivers of community economies, from
jobs to wages. They are the ones who need our help. Any special tax
considerations should benefit American-owned companies that support
American jobs and workers.
You don’t have to look far in my home state of Pennsylvania to see local
companies creating jobs, giving back to their local communities and
helping those in need. Baby formula manufacturer ByHeart in Reading has
been at the forefront of efforts to tackle a nationwide shortage. A
roofing company in Oley is giving away a free roof to a deserving family
for the ninth straight year. And recently, a logistics company joined
together with the York County community to collect supplies for the people
of Ukraine. These are the kinds of selfless actions throughout the
Commonwealth and our nation that we should be supporting, while we also
stand up for our local jobs and families.
In nearly every state where foreign-owned liquor pushed for special
treatment during legislative sessions this year, lawmakers rejected the
proposals. Hard liquor companies raked in record profits to a tune of more
than $35 billion — yet the industry continues to aggressively lobby for
more special carveouts. This no-holds-barred campaign to pad profits is a
real threat for American communities. No amount of big liquor’s massive
profits is reinvested back into local economies.
Pennsylvania families are paying record prices for essential items.
Consumers in other states are struggling with the same high costs. During
these difficult times, federal and state elected officials should continue
to cast a wary eye at this nationwide lobbying campaign by Big Liquor
which is seeking to protect massive tax windfalls and boost profits with
no regard for real-life consequences. Instead, let’s fight to protect
American jobs and American families