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LACK OF COMPETITION AND HIGH TAXES (VAT) MAKES FINNISH GROCERY COSTS SECOND MOST EXPENSIVE IN EU…….

Finland Statism

LACK OF COMPETITION AND HIGH TAXES (VAT) MAKES FINNISH GROCERY COSTS SECOND MOST EXPENSIVE IN EU…….

By KGS11 years ago1

How about some old fashioned free market enterprise here, and removal of the state’s foot off the citizens’ pocket book?

Fake competition between two major food companies coupled with damaging vat taxes sends our food costs soaring. Statist masterminds in action: taxing goods at every level of production till the customer purchases it off the shelf. Job killing and waste of wealth and resources.

Taxes make Finnish food costly in EU comparison

Finnish consumers paid around a fifth more for food than the EU average last year, according to Statistics Finland. The main culprit for the high prices is taxation.

Ihminen pakkaa ruokia kassiin kaupan kassalla. — Finnish groceries continue to be costly in 2013. Image: Yle / Juha Korhonen

Of the 15 so-called ‘old’ EU countries, Finland was the fourth most expensive after Denmark, Sweden and Austria in 2012.

The difference is mainly down to tax: Finnish VAT is levied at 14 percent on food purchases, which was the second highest rate in the comparison. In Ireland the corresponding tax rate is zero, while the average VAT levied in EU countries is 5.7 percent.

Concentration of the grocery market in the hands of two large companies, the S-group and Kesko, also plays a part in the high cost of Finnish groceries.

No relief in sight

In 2013, Finns’ food bills continue to be high as compared with the rest of Europe. According to Statistics Finland, the price of groceries has nearly doubled this year in comparison to old EU countries.

In June, food was some 15 percent more expensive here than in old EU countries on average.

Ilkka Lehtinen from Statistics Finland notes that countries’ salary sizes and prices go hand-in-hand, which is why the price comparison was carried out mainly between Finland and the old EU countries, as these have similar wage levels.

Written by KGS

One Response

By Ann-Marie Sep 16, 2013

Somebody has to pay for the invasion of the leeches….

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There’s No Common Cultural Legacy For The Alt-Right

Still, is there something to it? Is there a common heritage that will cover El Greco and Hume and Dostoyevsky? Is there one that can include the Jacobites and the Jacobins? There is, but it is not racial, and white supremacists reject it because it rejects them. The unifying heritage of Europe is religious and philosophical. It is Jerusalem and Athens, in one famous formulation. Christian religion and Greek philosophy, filtered through Roman law and culture, are the foundation of European culture. The tensions, agreements, developments and settlements between these have shaped the Western world, and these roots of Western civilization are not congenial to white supremacy.

Christianity is universal in its message and Jewish in its origins. For centuries after its founding, Christianity’s center was the Mediterranean world, including Asia Minor and North Africa. Christianity has never been defined by race, and locally-grown racist heresies are only sustainable among those ignorant of Christianity’s teachings, origins and history.

Greek philosophy is likewise ill-suited to serve as a basis for white identity. It is either too universal (addressing the human condition in general) or too local—none of us live as citizens of an ancient Greek polis. Later philosophical developments in Europe, such as the philosophies of the Enlightenment, likewise tend to be too universal for white supremacists seeking a tribal identity. As for the scientific revolution that developed within Western culture (albeit with much borrowed from outside Europe), math doesn’t care what color someone is.

War is being waged against Western culture from within which is in essence a war against Christianity and its moral origins in the Hebrew Bible. By attacking these Biblical foundations in the name of reason and human rights, the culture warriors of secularism are sawing off the branch on which they sit. The only way to defend Western civilisation is to reaffirm and restore its Biblical foundations. My argument is a development of ideas I first explored in my 2012 book The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power.

We are living in an era which extols reason, science and human rights. These are said to be essential for progress, a civilised society and the betterment of humanity. Religion is said to be their antithesis, the source instead of superstitious mumbo-jumbo, oppression and backward-thinking.

Some of this hostility is being driven by the perceived threat from Islamic terrorism and the Islamisation of Western culture. However, this animus against religion has far deeper roots and can be traced back to what is considered the birthplace of Western reason, the 18th-century Enlightenment.

Actually, it goes back specifically to the French Enlightenment. In England and Scotland, the Enlightenment developed reason and political liberty within the framework of Biblical belief. In France, by contrast, anti-clericalism morphed into fundamental hostility to Christianity and to religion itself.

“Ecrasez l’infame,” said Voltaire (crush infamy) — the infamy to which he referred being not just the Church but Christianity, which he wanted to replace with the religion of reason, virtue and liberty, “drawn from the bosom of nature”.

Perfecting society

But this Enlightenment did not remove religion so much as pervert it. It took millenarian fantasies, the idea that the perfection of the world was at hand, and it secularised them. Instead of God producing heaven on earth, it would be mankind which would bring that about. Reason would create the perfect society and “progress” was the process by which utopia would be attained.

“I think that we should correct the vocabulary that we use, and call a spade a spade. It is all about Jihad, the Islamic effort to spread Islam globally”:

Terrorist attack – should be called Military Jihad.

Incitement – Media Jihad.

Al-Jazeera – Media Jihad Channel.

Imposing Sharia law – Judicial Jihad or Legislative Jihad.

Boycotting Israel (BDS) – Economic Jihad.

Emigration to EU and US – Emigration Jihad / Hijra Jihad.

Building mosques, Islamic education institutions – Cultural Jihad.

Halal food – Dietary Jihad.

Hijab or Niqab – Clothing Jihad.

Activity of MSA – Academic Jihad.

Activity of CAIR – Political Jihad / Public Jihad.

Collecting money for Islamic “charities” – Financial Jihad.

Political correctness – Submission to Jihad.

J Street, Peace Now, JVP and their likes – Jewish Useful Idiots who Serve Jihad.

Iran deal – Western Support for Nuclear Jihad.