L’Chaim
Drink more alcohol, Japan urges its young people
(The Telegraph 18 August 2022)
The problem is, of course, money. Taxes from alcohol sales have plunged. The worst affected drink, beer, saw a drop of more than 20 per cent in 2020.
President Joe Biden has been trying to help. “Get a shot and have a beer,” Biden said in an attempt to get more people to take the COVID vaccination.
A major influence on drinking is the move from the office to working from home. People have discovered that they can communicate with their colleagues without drinking as a common denominator.
“If the new normal takes root” a tax official said, “that will be an additional headwind for tax revenue.”
We couldn’t have that, could we!
Several other sources of income also need some encouragement. The car is a good example, let us take a look.
Speeding. Too many drivers are obeying the posted speed limits. This has badly affected the government’s income from fines. Drivers should, no, must drive as fast as possible. The government needs their money. For its part, the government should reduce the speed limit to 10, even 5, kilometres per hour. Let drivers try to obey that!
Parking. What is the point of No Parking signs if nobody parks there. For the public good, drivers should park wherever they see a No Parking sign. As a side benefit, this will require many more parking wardens. More tax revenue and less unemployment.
Burglary. Burglary is common in the UK – there is a break-in every 106 seconds, that’s more than 800 every day. But the police don’t do very much. Perhaps they could be persuaded to leave the comfort of their police stations if they were to get a reward for doing their job. They, in turn, would make sure that there were more burglars to catch. Burglary is difficult work, but someone has to do it.
We end up where we started, in the pub. Following in Japan’s footsteps, it would help if pubs were to be open for more sensible hours than at present. In the United Kingdom, for example, opening hours for most pubs are 11:00 – 23:00. This is plainly absurd; pubs should be open 24/7.
L’chaim.