Posted on 06/24/2018 12:33:12 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Time and again we hear politicians from different parts of the country profess the virtues of a soda tax. Their reasoning ranges from wanting to improve the public health, by cutting back consumption of unhealthy drinks, to talking about how much revenue it will bring in.
This proclivity of nanny statists to push policies to change people’s behavior hues quite closely to Einstein’s definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Policy makers of all stripes need to abandon their affinity for soda taxes.
Put simply, soda taxes just don’t work. Take Berkeley, California, as an example. The city implemented a one cent-per-ounce tax in 2014, which could increase costs by almost 75 percent. A study conducted at Duke University showed that the tax has had little to no effect on obesity, and other related health issues. Another study showed that caloric intake from taxed beverages only went down six calories per day. It turns out the government cannot tax people into good health.
The story remains the same in Philadelphia, a city that implemented its own soda tax of one-and-a-half cents-per-ounce last year. Instead of taking in increased revenues from consumers, Oxford Economics found that instead the tax drove consumers out of the city. Beverage sales decreased in Philadelphia by 24 percent. Sales increased by 14 percent in the surrounding area. The soda tax, like most all taxes, hurts small businesses in the process. In this case, it also failed to produce the revenue it sought.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Nanny State PING!
Dear Washington Times, where is your copy editor? “hues quite closely” should be “hews quite closely”.
“Einstein’s definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and over, expecting different results”
The definition of insanity is repeating that idiotic cliché over and over!
Good catch!
Soda except real ones from Italy. Suck
Bad sugar water
The new thing which is great is kombucha
Good for you soda !
They can’t help themselves. They want control of everything we do, say or think.
Hmmm. Maybe they should try one more time?
America, under what Madison called a "benign" government influence, became a place of freedom, creativity, productivity, and plenty--enough to share with the world.
Other places, under the spell of these ideas of "socialism" and Utopia, have come and gone, or, if they exist, they are miserable places where tyrannical clowns squelch creativity among the citizens, destroy productivity, produce poverty and gloom, and look to other countries to sustain their people, while the leaders soak up all that the citizens produce.
Yet, in America, the beneficiaries of the Founders' system of free people and limited government prattle on and on about how they're going to "fight" for the little people whose votes they covet!
Enough already!
Even in brain dead Cook County the population rose up against the one cent per oz tax. I was not much of a pop drinker but immediately went into DuPage County and bought a case.
The Central Committee had to rescind it within months grumbling all the while about “the children.”
Even in brain dead Cook County the population rose up against the one cent per oz tax. I was not much of a pop drinker but immediately went into DuPage County and bought a case.
The Central Committee had to rescind it within months grumbling all the while about “the children.”
I would drink water
Rhetorical question.
I’m in favor banning sugar and sugar products like HFCS. Sugar more closely resembles a drug than a food source. Ever see a kid drink their first coke? It’s like they took a snort of Cocaine. For a long time we didn’t see the negatives in sugar consumption today it’s looking more and more like its a drug with no health benefits that does long term damage to people’s health.
There’s a book called “the Case against Sugar” where the author Gary Taubes tracks how ills like diabetes and obesity closely track the increased availability of sugar.
If spell-check doesn’t say it’s wrong, then it must be right, write?
Absotively, posilutely write!
Seattle has a soda tax. So Seattle Costco’s are showing how much extra you pay for the soda tax. People are going to out of city Costco’s to get their soda. The city council is unhappy with Costco for undermining their tax. Boo friggin’ hoo
They’re not supposed to “work”, they’re supposed to punish behavior with an eye towards bringing in revenue, just like excise taxes on tobacco, or what not.
Alternative definition of insanity:
Anything involving government, politicians or bureaucrats.
Did it raise money?
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