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10% on cider or not

geni

Anti-homeopathy illuminati member
geni
Joined
Oct 14, 2003
Messages
28,209
So the torries have said they are not going to increase the tax on cider. Aside from the problem of how they are going to pay for this the continueing low tax on cider only continues to encourage the production of low quality "ciders" in order to get the best alcohol to price ratio.
 
Low cost/high strength cider is simply disgraceful, deliberately designed to encourage alcoholism. It's evil.
 
geni said:
Yes but has anyone over the age of 18 ever drunk it unironicaly?
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When I lived in Manchester the local off-licence and general store used to let people swap their milk tokens for cider - so yes, lots. :(
 
The tories are unashamed populists....

A better proposal would be a minimum per unit price on all alcohol - with proceeds ringfenced and going towards alcohol related expenditure on NHS/policing.

This would

1) Help fund the cost to society of alcohol
2) Help to eliminate the ridiculously cheap white lightening and other alcoholic friendly drinks
3) Help the dying pub industry by even-ing up the differential between pub price and supermarket price

It's a no brainer. Will it happen? No chance.
 
What ratio are we talking about? In Germany you get a liter of pure alcohol in the form of (choice depending on your level of alcoholic professionalism) cheapest beer, wine or schnaps for around 13€, which is scandalous and does a lot of harm.

To compare it to other countries, I found an interesting pdf about affordability of alcohol in EU countries. It seems to be some years old and the numbers for prices in Germany are much too high.

They use a measurement inspired by the famous Big Mac Index, the [alc]/Big Mac ratio. See table on page one. I don't like the categories they use, so i made up my own, comparing the price of 219g alcohol to that of a (219g) Bic Mac.

Which is around 13*0,219/0,789[kg/l]/3.3 = 1,09(!) WMNIKMAT*

* "Was man nicht isst, kann man auch trinken" ... proverb ... What you don't eat, you can drink. :p
 
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Well if you are prepared to drink white strike then it works out at about £13.33 per litre of ethanol.
 
geni said:
So the torries have said they are not going to increase the tax on cider. Aside from the problem of how they are going to pay for this the continueing low tax on cider only continues to encourage the production of low quality "ciders" in order to get the best alcohol to price ratio.
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They cannot buy my vote even though I am a drinker of cider. Not the high strength guff however.
 
They have to be careful, they might actually cause a revolution for real.

Alcohol is pretty much the only thing that will push people into action.
 
Consider that you can get a three litre bottle of cider for around £2 with a strength of around 5.5%. If you are an alcoholic, and consume just two of those bottles a day, that's around 30 units of alcohol, 26 above your recommended intake. You're less than a fiver out of pocket for two bottles.

The manufacturers are simply vicious people, tailoring drinks to low income alcoholics.
 
geni said:
So the torries have said they are not going to increase the tax on cider. Aside from the problem of how they are going to pay for this the continueing low tax on cider only continues to encourage the production of low quality "ciders" in order to get the best alcohol to price ratio.
Click to expand...

What kind of rectum would want to drink low-quality cider - unless forced into it by poverty.
 
geni said:
So the torries have said they are not going to increase the tax on cider. Aside from the problem of how they are going to pay for this the continueing low tax on cider only continues to encourage the production of low quality "ciders" in order to get the best alcohol to price ratio.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't increasing the tax make the pressure to make low-quality product even greater? They'd still want to reach the same market, and their current profit ratio won't cut it as well due to the additional fee by the government.

Not saying it's not necessarily a good thing to do, but I don't think it would increase the quality at all, rather the reverse.

Cigarettes are very expensive in the US due to federal and state taxes (which are outrageous on them.) People struggle to buy the absolute cheapest cigarettes possible, still less than $5 per pack (not per carton.)
 
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Beerina said:
Wouldn't increasing the tax make the pressure to make low-quality product even greater? They'd still want to reach the same market, and their current profit ratio won't cut it as well due to the additional fee by the government.

Not saying it's not necessarily a good thing to do, but I don't think it would increase the quality at all, rather the reverse.
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The problem is that the tax on cider is lower than it is for any other way of buying ethanol other than methylated spirits. If the tax were increased then it's likey cider would become less of a focus for producing the cheapest drink.
 
As a lifelong cider drinker (my grannie was from Somerset- it's a genetic requirement), I think you're a bunch of elitist, wine bar snobs.
My vote is on sale to any party commmitting to CUT the price of Weston's Organic by 3p a bottle.
 
So is cider basically the equivalent of malt liquor in the US?

As an aside how is Woodchuck Amber on the scale of ciders? I believe that is the only one I've ever drank and it tastes good to me.
 
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