From England: A voluntary “sausage tax” has been introduced to help fund a campaign to secure protected status for Lincolnshire’s famous bangers. Participating butchers in the county are asking customers to pay an extra five pence when they buy the sausages. Lincolnshire Sausage Association, which wants to secure Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), is behind the scheme. The butchers of Lincolnshire would like to prevent butchers from Yorkshire and other counties for calling their bangers, “Lincolnshire Sausage”. If approved this would lead to a decrease in the supply of the tasty breakfast meat and thus allow the selected butchers to charge a higher price. In essence, the butchers are attempting to have a government establish through law what they could not do through taste: a monopoly supply. While this sort of rent-seeking behavior is an unfortunate part of the political process, it is rare that we see such a brazen attempt by the rent seekers to make others pay for their privilege. Perhaps Robert Barro will have to rethink his most effective monopoly. The whole point is a bit moot since EU regulations require it to be named the “emulsified high-fat offal tube“.
