One might almost believe there's a masterplan that goes something like this -
Make people fatter.
Make them sicker.
Give them medicine.
Collect tax to keep them alive.
And if they try to get healthy themselves - slap VAT on it.
It sounds like a bad dystopian Netflix series, but in Denmark we've decided to make the live-action version from 2026.
We stand in the middle of a time where the population is getting fatter and sicker than ever.
Where young people are losing physical fitness, mental wellbeing, drive, direction and libido.
Where the health system collapses under chronic, self-created lifestyle diseases.
And what is the great political response?
<drumroll…>
"Let's make training 25% more expensive for everyone over 30."
Brilliant. Simply. One might risk that adult Danes got muscles, testosterone and will to live.
And that won't do.
Especially not in a democracy.
And as if that weren't stupid enough, they're churning out lunatic policy in another ministry -
Protein-rich, nourishing food becomes more and more expensive, while ultra-processed corn-syrup-toast-sugar-foam is still cheap and strategically placed at the checkout.
Tax on what makes you strong.
Subsidy on what makes you weak.
It's almost poetic.
Shakespeare would have called it "A Tragedy in Five Carbs".
But I bet this comment appears below -
"But Thomas, it's only 25% VAT. Relax?"
Yes yes, and when the single mother who has too much month left when the wallet runs empty stands in Netto and sees beef at 175 kr. per kilo and toast bread at 7,95… then try to explain to me which product the state thinks she deserves!?
Do you really not think this is thought through?
The government damn well knows how people shop? They have endless rows of people with calculators employed to turn inside out every consequence of the decisions they make. There is nothing about all this that comes as a surprise to them - on the contrary, we must assume it's a strategy.
It CAN'T be anything else?
And. You can think about that. It's honestly starting to resemble a public health policy written by a pharmaceutical company -
"We'd like you just sick enough to be a stable subscription business, but uhh.. well, not quite healthy enough to stop being a customer."
And just bring the classic -
"But Thomas, people can just go for a run. It's free."
No.
This is the state.
Nothing is free anymore.
Just wait until 2027 - where ClimateDan stands with his sorrowful boyband expression over a manufactured climate collapse we won't see until 2743 at the earliest…
"Running on municipal pavement - 12 kr. per km in CO2 tax."
And if you run fast enough to produce heat -
"Extra heat emission surcharge."
There's something completely skewed when taking responsibility for your body isn't rewarded - but opposed. When eating what's best for your body composition and health isn't incentivized.
It's as if our society no longer wants free, strong, healthy, upright people.
It wants domesticated, castrated and administered clients and patients.
And maybe we should be a bit more angry than we are. What on earth is going on in Backwardsville?
Honestly?
