Ready, Fire, Aim! - Mihail's Public Blog: Beef tax

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Monday, December 13, 2004

Beef tax

An amusing Jon Carroll column in the San Francisco Chronicle on the beef "tax":

Well, this is interesting. Cattle ranchers are suing the U.S. government because they don't like the institutional ads promoting beef sales. You know: "Beef: It's What for Dinner," which is a catchier slogan than it has any right to be.

It turns out that beef producers are forced to pay $1 per head of cattle to support the ad campaign. This is not a voluntary program; this is in essence a tax, and some of the ranchers don't like it much. It's not clear whether they like the campaign, but it is sure true they don't like being squeezed for the dollar.

The government gets $80 million per annum to pay for the ads, whose effectiveness is unclear. My proposal for a new beef slogan ("Cows: They're Not Mad Anymore") has so far not attracted the attention it deserves.

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