Denmark’s “cow fart” tax is a statist intervention to change the public’s behaviour

Cow farts are a distraction, and the joke’s on us. The Danish tax on cow farts is a significant step toward the state ownership of the means of production. As the history of centrally managed economies shows, it’s not likely to end well.

Denmark, according to The New York Times, is going ahead with its livestock “Burp Tax.” Though hotly contested, the Danish government has nevertheless finally settled on levying farmers 300 kroners (~US$43) per tonne for carbon dioxide emissions, ramping to US$106 per tonne by 2035. As is the case with many of these farm-targeted green interventions, the action is ludicrously ineffectual at addressing the trumped-up problem, while remarkably effective at further cementing state controls over economic production.

Part of the reason farms, and especially cows, are such fat targets for this kind of statist* intervention is that, politically speaking, they are the perfect scapegoat. It all seems so harmless, after all – so silly even – that serious-minded folk risk looking ridiculous if they object. Is it really so very draconian, goes the argument, to ask farmers to reduce their cow flatulence? The ever-so-reasonable request (enforceable by law, to be sure) glides under the radar in a scree of giggle-inducing copy that distracts readers to what is really afoot....<<<Read More>>>...