Obesity Tax

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Source: Commentary: Why we need an obesity tax - CNN.com

I'm not obese, nor am I even slightly overweight. That said, I *am* logical and this is one of the most ill-thought proposals I've seen in awhile (and that's saying something over the past few years).

Speaking points (paraphrasing here) from David Patterson, governor of New York:

  • our kids are fat
  • our kids drink sugared beverages
  • we should add an 18% "obesity tax" on sugared beverages to curb childhood obesity
  • taxes on cigarettes raised awareness and reduced usage among young people. Ergo, we should tax sugared beverages to encourage the same effect in childhood obesity.
Problems with Patterson's public reasoning:

  • he plans to only tax sugared beverages, ignoring all other foodstuffs that contribute to obesity
  • millions of people enjoy "sugared beverages" without being obese (or, reasonably boosting the chances of their dealing with obesity in the future).
As all things government, legislation begins slowly and builds over time. Should Patterson's proposal be adopted, I've no doubt that New York will begin taxing other foodstuffs over the years.

As an aside, I suspect his perspective has less to do with public health and more to do with gaining access to the $404 million he hopes to raise.

But, that's just me being cynical.
 


I think that is just one tax out of around 89 new ones they are introducing. Now thats the cost of the bailout. Hyperinflation to come.
 
Yeah, the consumption of soft drinks or fast food alone isn't the problem. When we were kids 7-11 had just come out with the Super Big Gulp, a full 2 litres of soda, and we drank plenty of them. We ate candy and fast food. Not all the time, like some these days, but often enough.

The big difference of course is that we walked everywhere, ran constantly, rode our bikes, played "war", hide and go seek, etc. etc. etc. Physical education was mandatory in schools and in Canada they had "Participaction" which was a program in school that measured your body fat, how many sit ups, push ups, chin ups and relays you could do in a minute and awarded gold silver and bronze medals based on your performance and improvement over time.

We were constantly in motion from sun up til sun down. I ate everything in sight and was rail thin.

These days schools make PE an option, or cancel it all together. Kids sit behind screens playing video games or surfing the web. Socialization is done online instead of in person. Kids don't want to walk anywhere. It's not PC to stigmatize fat kids.

Back in the day fat kids would get ripped on for being out of shape, and rightfully so.

It's good that he's bringing some attention to the problem, but this isn't going to solve anything.
 
Fatbat said:
It's good that he's bringing some attention to the problem, but this isn't going to solve anything.
Click to expand...

Its not intended to solve anything. Its only purpose is to tax you and get to your money. Those who don't want to pay would either give up Cola or switch to Diet Cola and drink the poison known as aspartame
 
Maybe we can have a "Black Tax" to offset the health care of African Americans on medicaid, since some people seem to think they pose a higher risk to heart disease.

</sarcasm>

Basically the tax proposition is to try to gain money in a product that people are not as likely to easily give up (ie: alcohol, cigarettes, now they're going after sugar and caffeine). Profiting off an addiction so to speak. Kinda like how we got plenty of taxes on gasoline because many of us can't afford 'not' to pay it.

I guess they could just tax water and cover all their bases regardless of the drink. :D But if they're going to increase taxes on everything as I buy it, I demand lower income taxes. :D
 
SeoReborn said:
Its not intended to solve anything. Its only purpose is to tax you and get to your money. Those who don't want to pay would either give up Cola or switch to Diet Cola and drink the poison known as aspartame
Click to expand...

Damn dude you beat me too it, since I found out what aspartame (and it is in all your diet soda folks) I will not touch a diet soda for my life. It's also in a lot of flavored waters so I'm fucked there too.

And to think, the US Government had it labeled as a bio weapon at one point...
 
SeoReborn said:
Its not intended to solve anything. Its only purpose is to tax you and get to your money. Those who don't want to pay would either give up Cola or switch to Diet Cola and drink the poison known as aspartame
Click to expand...

I know it's not intended to solve anything. That why I said "this isn't going to solve anything". Of course it's just a cash grab by the state.

I have to wonder if diet drinks won't just be priced at the same levels, especially those that come from vending machines. As you pointed out, Aspertame is just as evil, if not more so, than refined sugars. I also have a problem with fluoride in drinking water, both from the tap and bottled. I suspect a lot of the mental problems with kids ("ADD" for example) are a result of being exposed to all this crap on a daily basis.
 
I totally agree with you on this one. My three brothers and I ate and drank so much crap when we were younger but at the same time, we played outside all day and night until we were forced to come in. Do kids even play Hide-and-seek, German Nightspy, and kickball anymore?


Fatbat said:
Yeah, the consumption of soft drinks or fast food alone isn't the problem. When we were kids 7-11 had just come out with the Super Big Gulp, a full 2 litres of soda, and we drank plenty of them. We ate candy and fast food. Not all the time, like some these days, but often enough.

The big difference of course is that we walked everywhere, ran constantly, rode our bikes, played "war", hide and go seek, etc. etc. etc. Physical education was mandatory in schools and in Canada they had "Participaction" which was a program in school that measured your body fat, how many sit ups, push ups, chin ups and relays you could do in a minute and awarded gold silver and bronze medals based on your performance and improvement over time.

We were constantly in motion from sun up til sun down. I ate everything in sight and was rail thin.

These days schools make PE an option, or cancel it all together. Kids sit behind screens playing video games or surfing the web. Socialization is done online instead of in person. Kids don't want to walk anywhere. It's not PC to stigmatize fat kids.

Back in the day fat kids would get ripped on for being out of shape, and rightfully so.

It's good that he's bringing some attention to the problem, but this isn't going to solve anything.
Click to expand...
 
Fatbat said:
I know it's not intended to solve anything. That why I said "this isn't going to solve anything". Of course it's just a cash grab by the state.

I have to wonder if diet drinks won't just be priced at the same levels, especially those that come from vending machines. As you pointed out, Aspertame is just as evil, if not more so, than refined sugars. I also have a problem with fluoride in drinking water, both from the tap and bottled. I suspect a lot of the mental problems with kids ("ADD" for example) are a result of being exposed to all this crap on a daily basis.
Click to expand...

I drink only evian water, and brush using non flouride toothpaste. The only way to remove flouride and other poisonous metals from our water is using reverse osmosis filter. I still need to get a shower filter as we absorb most of these crap from the steam. If they start adding flouride or other crap to bottled water, I'll get an atmospheric generator which condenses water from the atmosphere, cleans and filters it for consumption.
 
SeoReborn said:
I drink only evian water, and brush using non flouride toothpaste. The only way to remove flouride and other poisonous metals from our water is using reverse osmosis filter. I still need to get a shower filter as we absorb most of these crap from the steam. If they start adding flouride or other crap to bottled water, I'll get an atmospheric generator which condenses water from the atmosphere, cleans and filters it for consumption.
Click to expand...

Guess I'm lucky that the water isn't fluoridated here (although it is where I grew up)... Bottled water is evil in it's own right and I'd hate to be forced to choose to help that industry.

Great article here (great site too)

Fatbat, you hit the nail on the head man. The problem is these kids are quickly becoming the perfect model citizens... inactive, insecure, unthinking, blindly following the media and above all big big big consumers.
 
LazyHippy said:
Guess I'm lucky that the water isn't fluoridated here (although it is where I grew up)... Bottled water is evil in it's own right and I'd hate to be forced to choose to help that industry.

Great article here (great site too)

Fatbat, you hit the nail on the head man. The problem is these kids are quickly becoming the perfect model citizens... inactive, insecure, unthinking, blindly following the media and above all big big big consumers.
Click to expand...

Lazy, you live in UK don't you? I think most if not all of England is fluoridated water.
 
Fluoride is added by some bottled water companies already. As per the FDA's rules the label should say something about tooth decay prevention if there's fluoride in it. Evian has some trace amounts of naturally occurring fluoride btw, so does the brand we drink here in Spain called Lanjaron.

Hmmm, embedding Youtube here... how is it done? Oh, nm, I got it, duh.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT1naiTBpKg&feature=related"]YouTube - Water and Toothpaste fluoridation = DANGER[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP7IPDfC3yg&feature=related"]YouTube - Doctor Exposes Fluoride as Poison[/ame]
 
SeoReborn said:
I drink only evian water, and brush using non flouride toothpaste. The only way to remove flouride and other poisonous metals from our water is using reverse osmosis filter. I still need to get a shower filter as we absorb most of these crap from the steam. If they start adding flouride or other crap to bottled water, I'll get an atmospheric generator which condenses water from the atmosphere, cleans and filters it for consumption.
Click to expand...

I want one, a little on the pricey side for the EcoloBlue™ unlimited, pure, renewable water from the air you breathe though.
 
Ehhh, fluoride ain't so bad. Probably shouldn't have AS much as what's put in the water, but then I see the teeth of people from countries that don't fluoridate the water and I think to myself "Yeah, I'd rather have the teeth than the liver".
I'm more worried about chlorine levels, honestly. If you can taste it, it's a bad sign...

Seoreborn: Or, for the cost of a 2 big pots, a funnel, and some polymer hosing, and 15 minutes on the stove you could just distill the water if you really wanted to get everything out... I should point out distilled water will bleach you of mineral content though, particularly sodium and calcium compounds.
 
Damn...the Flouride level for Evian is 0.07 ppm..did not know it contains flouride (i found the figure from a website and not from the label). It's less than water supply of 0.8 to 1.0 ppm. I need to look at my options now...either an reverse osmosis filter or atmospheric generator. I'll probably go for the atmospheric generator as it detaches me from the water network i.e. independance. Shit, so many things to do, I'm stretching myself as I am trying to get as much gold n silver as possible also.
 
HarveyJ said:
Ehhh, fluoride ain't so bad. Probably shouldn't have AS much as what's put in the water, but then I see the teeth of people from countries that don't fluoridate the water and I think to myself "Yeah, I'd rather have the teeth than the liver".
I'm more worried about chlorine levels, honestly. If you can taste it, it's a bad sign...

Seoreborn: Or, for the cost of a 2 big pots, a funnel, and some polymer hosing, and 15 minutes on the stove you could just distill the water if you really wanted to get everything out... I should point out distilled water will bleach you of mineral content though, particularly sodium and calcium compounds.
Click to expand...

Lol, floride is highly toxic and it's added to our water supply on purpose! Go cram "toxicity of floride" into google and start reading.
 
I'm fucking pumped to have my kidneys destroyed by drinking the non-taxed diet sodas with chemical replacements for sugar.
But I mean hey drinking soda everyday has made me 6"1' 170LB.
 
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