Fugato

Þrátt fyrir að áfengisgjald hér á landi yrði lækkað um helming yrði það svipað og í Svíþjóð og áfram það langhæsta innan Evrópska efnahagssvæðisins.

[Roughly: Even if the alcohol fee in Iceland were cut by one-half, it would be similar to that in Sweden, and still by far the highest in the European Economic Community.]

These are the final words of the supporting arguments for a bill proposing to reduce state monopoly on alcohol retail sales in Iceland (making the monopoly apply only to alcohol stronger than 22%, among other changes). This has been proposed in parliament for the n^th time, where n is an embarrassingly large number. It was approved for “a second discussion.”

Each time this is attempted, as well as each time I travel abroad and see wine in stores, it sharpens my astonishment — normally dulled by the pernicious it’s-always-been-that-way effect — that even now, in the 21st century, the government of this otherwise relatively free country still persists in monopolizing the doling-out of beer and wine to us, and gouging us for it with government fees. Ostensibly to protect us from our own folly.

Yes, there are people who have problems with their alcohol consumption. Does anybody really believe that the state monopoly is helping them?

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m sauntering off to Kaffitár, a café down the street. Kaffitár, in addition to serving the world’s best cappuccino (equalled by Te&kaffi and Segafredo on Lækjartorg, but surpassed by none), does not allow smoking. Not because smoking in cafés has been banned by law — though that will probably happen here before long — but simply because it chooses to. I like that.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 4th, 2005 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.