A Little of What You Fancy?

Health organisations and Landman Economics calculate that, in the UK, companies earn almost £53bn a year selling tobacco, junk food and excess alcohol to the population. Consumers actually spend £81.5bn per annum on unhealthy products, leading to obesity, heart disease, diabetes etc. The UK government collects almost £29bn a year from these products in tax. Their consumption, however, results in a £31bn 'hit' to the economy by causing unemployment and lost productivity (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/18/firms-earn-53bn-a-year-from-uk-smoking-excess-drinking-and-junk-food-study). It's clearly false economy for the UK government to tolerate this state of affairs. It's, however, currently complaining about the failure of substantial numbers of the population to be 'economically active'. Here's a potential effective answer. Time to get tougher with the firms raking in cash, encouraging folk by advertising to get unhealthy and attempting to dicredit scientific evidence of the harm caused by their products. One could argue that inappropriate profits have been under-estimated, as it seems likely that vaping also stores up future ill-health in the young. You can't drive the seriously ill back to work, by cutting their benefits!