Finland's golden geese are less educated, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and drive their cars everywhere. The more a person uses products carrying consumption tax, the more he or she contributes to government coffers in addition to paying VAT and income tax.
”If a person like this works his whole life without ever being unemployed and dies before retirement age, he’ll make more money for the government than he’ll spend by using public resources,” explains Timo Rauhanen, a senior researcher at the Government Institute for Economic Research.
Big Bucks in Consumption Taxes
Consumption taxes fetch some 24 bllion euros a year, making smokers and drinkers fantastic taxpayers, according to Minna Punakallio, the chief economist of the Finnish Taxpayers' Association. Alcohol and cigarette duties account for 1.7 billion euros of this sum, and petrol's share is 3.2 billion euros.
Smokers Pay for Own Medical Treatment
Pekka Rissanen, a professor at the Tampere School of Public Health, says the taxes smokers pay to light up more than cover the cost of any medical attention they’ll need, adding that smoking also shortens lifespan.
Calculating the social costs of alcohol is meanwhile more difficult since the effects of alcohol reach beyond the individual.
“The harms of alcohol usually extend to the individual’s family and workplace, which means the authorities or employers foot the bill," says Rissanen.
Despite the monetary and health implications certain lifestyle choices carry, Rissanen says very few people make consumption decisions based on societal considerations.
“Most likely people smoke and drink because they enjoy it,” he says.
