Finnish Social Welfare in Action

This unfortunately is a common sight in Finland. This man is so drunk that he is passed out in the center of the Finnish city of Tampere. Worse yet is that this guy got tanked well before noon. He is probably well-known to these policemen who have the thankless task of collecting him from the street. This will probably not be the last time either. Notice the lack of an ambulance. One would have been called had they suspected a problem other than too much alcohol.

Just remember if you are ever in Finland and your having a heart attack, be sure to not look like your just another drunk.

Out Cold

Just to be clear, I was not searching for this, I just ran across it soon after arriving into the city. Sure, you can see this most anywhere else in the western world, but In Finland, this is something you can see right in the center of town, on the busses, trams, wherever. Everywhere.

The Government here does have a solution to combat this problem. It is similar to their solution to solving most every problem. That is to raise taxes. So they plan to raise the tax on alcohol that is levied before levying the VAT (sales tax) on the price of the product and on the alcohol tax. (That is called double-taxation.)

Of course there are other ways to obtain alcohol. Hell, I was told how to make poisonous methanol drinkable by freezing out the 'poison'. Not that I would try such a thing, but then again, I would not be picked up off the sidewalk either.

There is also the issue that Finns, when drinking, tend to continue drinking until their wallet is empty. Higher prices just means that they go out with more money in their wallets.