Battling the Couch Potatoes: Hungary Introduces 'Fat Tax' ... Not really sure what to make about all of this, it's quite clear Hungary is doing this to raise state income instead of doing something about the problem, because otherwise they would invest the money in awareness porgrams, sport infrastructure, etc.
Fat does not make you fat and salt passes right through your body if you don't need it. Sugar is the only danger in that group. Even so, appropriate for people used to being told what to do by their government.
All this does is make those who eat healthy and want to treat themselves sometimes pay more. (*)(*)(*)(*)ing stupid. Is this what America is headed towards?
Good ol' fashioned sin tax. I'm keeping my eyes on this. If they should happen to raise this fat tax to a ridiculous level, I'm investing in Little Debbie and shipping those puppies over by the plane load. Is Hungary using the Euro? It'd be a nice return on my dollar
Salty foods mostly are bad for you, e.g. potato chips, fries, pizza, all kinds of salts/snacks. Not really sure this is the same in English, but in Dutch I can say: "zoutjes". zout = salt (pronounciations is very similar, btw) With "zoutjes" I mean "salty snacks" like Tuc (mmm, these are nice), all sort of crackers, nuts, chips, etc. In general, salty foods are way unhealthy. And salt itself isn't good for you either. Fact.
Dutch or Flemish ? I know there are similarities but is it the SAME ? However, while too much salt might not be recommended for Northern Europeans I understand its essential in the TRopics - No ? .
This is worthy of a seperate thread, but I doubt anyone would be interested. There is less difference between Northern Dutch and Southern Dutch (= Flemish) than between American English and British English, e.g. the spelling is 100% the same. However it's far more complicated than that, let's take the word "beautiful". In The Netherlands they will use "mooi" -- always. In Flanders (= Southern Netherlands) we can use "mooi" and "schoon". The word "schoon" is 100% Dutch, but a Dutch person will never use but they understand perfectly what it means. Also, some other differences, e.g. "nice weather": - In The Netherlands they will say: "lekker weertje" (= "tasty/pleasant weather") - In Flanders we say: "aangenaam weertje" (= "nice/pleasant weather") => both are 100% correct In general, linguists agree that the Southern Dutch accent is the most correct one, and with "Het Groot Dictee Der Nederlandse Taal" mostly a Flemish person wins. And we are in the minorty. Go figure. If you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish => there is large competive feeling about this, especially in Flanders because in The Netherlands they used to look down on us as "the little cultural brother". However, in The Netherlands there is a large animosity because Flemish companies are buying up Dutch media (newspapers, magazines, etc.) and almost every influentional Dutch newspaper now has a Flemish editor-in-chief. Payback's a biatch! ------------------------------- Also, salt in the body sucks up essential fluids (= water), so yeah: it's essential in the tropics. Great tip I saw on TV by a doctor to avoid a hangover: eat some salts (= salty snacks) and drink loads of water before going to bed. I used to drink at least about 1l (mostly more) water after coming home from clubbing, and it worked 60% to avoid a hang over this way. Now it works about 100% Oh, the 1l-1,5l sounds a lot, but when you're drunk you just put open your throat and swallow that sh!t. It goes down pretty easy, need to run for the WC in the morning though.
Janpor - Many thanks for the language lesson. Knowing of one or two Huguenots in our family tree , I once tried to learn Flemish - then Dutch - then German , but sadly failed and discouraged after couple visits to Brugge and found everyone speaking excellent English . I didnt do well with French + Spanish either. For some daft reason I still carry a phrase book/ translator , wherever I go, just in case I come across someone who can't speak english. cheers.
The US should introduce a similar tax - the budget would be balanced in no time. There are NO fatter people on God's earth than Americans. You each should be ashamed, gluttony is a SIN.
Sailors refered to as an Old Salt " Or someone who's useless said to be "Not worth his own salt " Any cell phone worth its salt will give you a clear, reliable connection. Take it all with a large pinch of salt . cheers.
Ganhdi nearly dropped his dhoti when the British introduced Salt Tax in India http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/india/SaltMarch.html Salt Tax has always spelt trouble for any British govnt who contmplated it. 1.1 The Salt Tax Salt was frequently a source of taxation in ancient times and historically has probably been the most taxed commodity. The early Stuarts had raised some tax on salt, wines and tobacco but salt was not taxed by Charles II after the Restoration. Following his accession in 1688, William III was, so to speak, “strapped for cash” and brought over Dutch accountants to solve his problems. As well as a more stringent duty on alcohol and tobacco, a novel form of salt taxation was introduced in 1693. This levied monies at the point of manufacture instead of at the point of use. http://www.saltsense.co.uk/hist-chem011.php OoooooH - its TROUBLE - BIG BIG TROUBLE . ---
True. But you won't pay much more. Constant consumers pay more. America is already there, if you consider cigarettes. If you smoke the occasional cig at a party, you pay the tax on it. But people who smoke a pack a day pay in a major way.
The English word "salary" as in "income" comes from Roman times when the soldiers were used to be payed in salt (sometimes). Latin: "sal" (= salt), even the word "soldiers" (from Latin, "sal dare" (= "to give salt") is derived from salt. WTF -- salt seems to have played a very important role in history... I remember an episode of a children's show called "Bassie & Adriaan" where they searched for an ancient treasure and they found it in a cave in Lanzarote, and eventually it was salt.
During the heat of the summer, we supply salt tablets(thermotabs or some such) to employees along with copious amounts of water, helps them stay hydrated. Good stuff. If you dont work outdoors or sweat much you wont need them. But for the active person, yes.
LOL, that is cool. If they did that in the USA the USA would be out of debt in 3 years. All the fat lazy consumers in the USA would be broke.
Let's be non-PC for a minute. Fat people are a nuisance. They require oversized everything (have you seen any fat people complaining about their seat on a flight recently?); they have a lot more health issues (jacking up my insurance rates); they are doing their part to reduce the number of people enjoying sports, outdoor living and healthy lifestyles; and they are just unsightly. Now I agree you can't put them in straight-jackets and give them diet and exercise until they've lost all that extra weight (that's not democratic), but if their choices end up costing ME more money I want that increased cost put back on THEM. What's really so wrong about that (not to mention reducing the number of eyesores)?
