Hong Kong & Norway: Alcohol & Alcohol.

Do we ever learn that prohibition never did anything to alcohol consumption nor would price control? Or is it just a different way to tax?

©2013 Am Ang Zhang

Hong Kong Scraps Wine, Beer Duties on Record Surplus

By Wendy Leung - February 27, 2008 05:37 EST

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong's government abolished taxes on wine and beer after posting a record surplus, boosting efforts to turn the city into a wine-trading hub.

The tariffs will be abolished immediately, costing the city government HK$560 million ($72 million) in annual tax revenue.

Tax was 80% before 2007 then 40%

The rest of Hong Kong Tax:

No sales tax

No capital gains tax

No VAT

Maximum salary tax of 20%

Profit tax maximum of 16%

Inheritance tax or estate duty has been abolished since             11February 2006. 

Yet, my doctor friends told me that there is no binge drinking problem like they have in Norway where there is high taxation and much difficulty in buying alcohol.

Strange.

Ålesund Norway©2012 Am Ang Zhang

Drunk and disorderly

Solveig Torvik 

December 16, 2010 

Weekend binge drinking is a perplexing feature of Norwegian cultural life to many visitors.

The role of alcohol in Norway often appears to be to consume it until you’re senseless, and alcohol commonly is accepted as an excuse for indulging in antisocial behavior. Binge drinking seemingly isn’t regarded as aberrant behavior in Norway, even by sober citizens who, generally speaking, uncomplainingly tolerate the ensuing brawls and other unpleasant results.

But why do so many people who do live in the “world’s best place” drink until they’re comatose? And why are many of them prone to violence and aggression when drunk? No one knows.

Dr Ole Johan Hoyberg, formerly a hospital-based psychiatrist in Ålesund, told newspaper Sunnmørsposten: “There’s a great deal more drunkenness in the communities that I got an insight about as a hospital doctor. Alcohol abuse is on the point of becoming a national sickness.”

Which seems an odd state of affairs indeed for a nation that’s billed as the world’s best place to live.