Meat is a tasty pleasure, and governments should be wary of policy demonizing it.
Some economists want to make it more expensive for the less well-off to enjoy a clear revealed pleasure: eating red and processed meat.
The average household in the poorest fifth of the income distribution dedicates 1.3 percent of spending towards it. That's over double average household spending in the richest quintile. Yet meat is now a new "public health" target. Lifestyle controls once stopped at smoking and drinking. They recently expanded to soda and even caffeine. Now, even the hallowed steak is not sacred.
Comment: The idea that taxing meat to "save lives" is a farce from the get-go, because meat is not detrimental to health. All the "studies" that try to make the case against meat are observational, with an infinite number of confounding factors making conclusions about its effect on health impossible. All a meat tax would accomplish would be to make it yet more difficult to achieve a normal state of health for the average consumer.
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