Tax the fat, Scandinavians say

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

Officials from Greenland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden recently discussed the pros and cons of a “weight tax” in their countries at a seminar organised by the Nordic Council’s Welfare and Citizens´ Committees.

This tax would compensate for the fact that overweight people cost more taxpayers’ money than people of average weight, says a Nordic Council news release.

The tax on overweight people was discussed as a way of curbing the obesity epidemic in the Nordic countries where exercise ordered by a prescription is already a common practice.