Tobacco Taxes

So, the New Zealand government has voted 118-4 to increase the sin tax on tobacco.  The funny thing is, the move was led by the Maori party, whose supporters contain a disproportionate number of smokers who probably don’t want a tax increase, and supported by the centre-right National party, who campaigned on an anti-nanny state platform. [...]

This Week in Moral Panic

A few stories from New Zealand over the past few days: Cheap smokes! “I’m bloody horrified, but not surprised at their tactics,” [Maori Party MP Hone Harawira] said. “There’s now overwhelming support from New Zealanders to get rid of tobacco in this country and companies are doing their best to hook as many people as [...]

Having it Both Ways

From p. 396 of Andrew Sinclair, Prohibition: The Era of Excess: Yet the strangest situation of all had been rendered legal by a decision of the Supreme Court. The Court had ruled that the Bureau of Internal Revenue had the right to request income-tax returns from bootleggers. The Court saw no reason “why the fact that a business [...]

The Best Sentence I Read Today

When Wheeler publicly praised the insertion of poison into industrial alcohol on the theory that those who drank it were committing deliberate suicide, he did not persuade others of the humanitarian aims of the League. Andrew Sinclair, Prohibition: The Era of Excess, p. 336. Poison is still added to some industrial alcohol, of course.

Brewery Launches Low-Alcohol Beer, Calls it Nanny State

Awesome: A brewery has launched a low alcohol beer called Nanny State after being branded irresponsible for creating the UK’s “strongest beer”. Scottish brewer BrewDog, of Fraserburgh, was criticised for Tokyo* which has an alcohol content of 18.2%. (…) BrewDog founder James Watt explained on his blog: “Anyone who knows BrewDog, knows beer, or anyone [...]

That Word Doesn’t Mean What You Think it Means…

The title of this press release from Living Streets Aotearoa – “Helping Kiwis Choose to Walk More Often” – nicely illustrates how seriously most public health advocates, environmentalists, and other do-gooders take the concept of choice. If you want to help someone make a choice, you could give them information or point out any flaws [...]

How Not to Take Rights Seriously

Readers of this blog are no doubt aware that I’m no fan of paternalist public health policies and the unquestioned assumption that the regulator knows the utility function of a person they’ve never met better than that person knows it themself. There’s one academic paper, however, which since I read it around a year ago [...]

Libertarian Music Friday: Mediocre British New Wave Edition

XTC with Making Plans for Nigel:

Swine Flu and Government Power

Anthony Gregory at The Beacon sees the current panic over swine flu as reinforcing government power. Statists across the spectrum are playing up the swine flu as more evidence that we need more state action and government power. Liberals see it as an excuse for more public health programs. Conservatives see it as a reason [...]

Quote of the Day: Politics as Moral Signalling Edition

As his own claim to social respect and honor are diminished, the sober, abstaining citizen seeks for public acts through which he may reaffirm the dominance and prestige of his way of life. Converting the sinner to virtue is one way; law is another. Even if the law is not enforced or enforceable, the symbolic [...]