At some point in 2021, around Germany....there was moderate talk of a meat tax coming around. Most people laughed and discounted it.
In the past month, there's at least one or two mentions each week via German public TV of tax, and how it might work.
The basic confrontation? A lot of environmentalists feel that there's too much meat going around and it's a burden for the climate. So the 'fix'? Well....they figure if they tax meat enough....you'd gradually lessen your consumption. Reality? The bulk of society would just keep paying increasing prices, and the people at the bottom of the wage scale would be the ones stuck in this tax mess.
Where would the tax money go? Generally, the repeated phrase is that more humane conditions would be introduced on farms....to make cattle happier, young male roosters live longer, and provide a healthy atmosphere for swine.
The amount of the tax? This is left in every single mention as a mystery. No one knows what the tax might amount to, at least in the first year or two.
The fact that Germans might cross the border into France, Poland, or Czech....to buy untaxed meat? If you lived within an hour's drive of the border...I could see most Germans getting their cooler loaded with ice, and making a run every two or three months to buy non-German non-taxed beef.
In the eyes of the environmentalists....at least the first year or two with less meat being sold in German grocery stores....they'd consider the tax a great success.
Eventually, they'd discover via custom's agents....that they've stopped literally hundreds of vehicles for possible illegal cigarette transport....to only discover coolers loaded with meat instead.
The German meat market to take a hit? Somewhere down the line, yes.
Any of this to occur in 2022? I doubt it....with all the inflation business going on....it'll freak the public out if meat prices suddenly did a 20-percent increase.
No comments:
Post a Comment