Tobacco in Norway

[stewartu]

I am in Oslo on business and, as is my usual habit whenever visiting a new place, i like to drift by the local tobacco shops and compare what is on offer. This afternoon i went gy Sol Cigar, seemingly the only tobacconist in Oslo. Nice selection of pipes; dunhill, chacom, stanwell, peterson, and an assortment of others. Pricey but in the realm of reality.
Tobacco on the other hand, was outrageous by U.S. standards. 50 gram tins of peterson tobaccos were between 350 and 450 kroner. Thats somewhere between 55 and 70 bucks. Ouch.

 

[oldredbeard]

Holy cow, glad I don't live there! I wouldn't be able to smoke a pipe.

 

[papipeguy]

They do like their taxes in Europe. They need them to pay for all of the "free" stuff they give people. Sound familiar?

 

[andrew369]

While taxes in Scandinavia may be a tad insane on tobacco it is contributing to some of the best social care in the world. I have a friend in Finland who is actually being paid to go to university, accomadation, fees everything covered by the government, as well as other things such as healthcare, social security etc. Some countries like here in Ireland though are just money grabbing scum, but that's politics.

 

[protestantpiper]

If they could do it here...they would. That would take me from about 1lb a month to 4oz real quick!

 

[kashmir]

That's insane! At those prices only the rich will enjoy their pipes. Or the poor who choose to give up food for tobacco. Hardly a fair and just system. And by the way, why aren't the people strong enough to take care of themselves? Are they so weak that only through government care they are able to survive? Invalids of the State, in my opinion.

 

[andrew369]

I don't think it is that they could not afford any of that stuff or are "invalids of the state", they are some of the richest economies in the world so can afford to give the people those services freeing up the amount of disposable income they have to buy other goods and services giving a tax revenue back to the government (such as ridiculously priced tobacco). It is a model of democratic socialism called the Nordic Model I think which works for them due to their wealth. Wouldn't work in other parts of the world like the US since average income is a fair bit lower. Such as the huge amount of public fear which sprung up over Obama Care. I think the safeguard of every person in society would be worth the bit extra in taxes especially if the people have the income to afford it. Bit scary to an outsider though alright. 8O

 

[kashmir]

Well, I for one would not be happy with such high taxation rates, especially on tobacco.

 

[protestantpiper]

What gives the government, theirs or ours, the right to tax anything beyond a normal sales tax? Is that not why our founding brethren threw English Tea into the Boston Harbor? We are willing to take so much more now, than then. I'm half a step away from trying to grow my own...

 

[judcole]

What gives the government, theirs or ours, the right to tax anything beyond a normal sales tax? Is that not why our founding brethren threw English Tea into the Boston Harbor?

.
Um - no. The colonists were upset not because of the tax per se, but because they had no representation in the Parliament that levied the taxes.
The rest of your post I won't address because it's politics, which is verboten here. The other part was history. :nana:

 

[protestantpiper]

Oh yeah. Sorry. No politics. The colonists were upset about representation, but taxes is why they threw tea in the harbor instead of chocolate...either way whether its guns, tobacco, or anything else it is taxed too much as it is.

 

[Perique]

'If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it's free.'

 

[lordnoble]

I could let this thread go and we could pretend to have a non-political discussion of tobacco taxes, but let's be honest. This thread is going to go downhill and hit the turbulent, murky political waters all of them do. So to "nip it in the bud", I'm closing. Thanks!
-Jason