Most good societies have a strong culture. Germany has a strong culture of teaching kids to make sense and live by the law, Sweden has a strong culture of individual freedom, and Denmark is somewhere in-between.
For instance, in Sweden you can put up your tent on private property without asking, first, and bathing nude is legal by default everywhere. Things are expected to be transparent. In Germany, you are obliged to help your parents when they get old, or they can sue you - but the intelligence service is not allowed to wiretap a home where terrorists are suspected to plot attacks. Nannyism based on national economic performance has been introduced a lot in Sweden. Denmark is somewhere in-between. We like some kinds of nannyism, but not to the degree to make it illegal to drink in public, that is definitely over the line, and is regarded to be a communist policy.
The communists were extreme: The guy who was responsible for an apartment building was also responsible for reporting if people were coming home late and drunk, so that the government officials could try to make those people improve their life style. So, anything that resembles government-paid people telling people how to live their lives, is not acceptable.
The current solution is to tax alcohol in Denmark - this means that a lot of Danes are driving to Germany to shop there - fully legal according to EU law. In Norway they don't have that possibility, but they also have the alcohol taxes, so instead, they have a huge yeast consumption - everybody assumes that the amount of home-produced alcohol is huge. As a result, taxes were lowered in Denmark some years ago, reducing the border trade, and now the government is trying to influence people's behavior on alcohol using campaigns.
When I look at the national health care expenses related to alcohol, there is a lot of money to save if some people would drink less. It seems that the campaigns work, mainly because they are well supported with data. |
