Tax the fat

[Tingkai]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALBANY, N.Y. — A proposal to tax junk food, video games and television commercials to pay for an obesity prevention program faces stiff opposition from politicians and business groups.

Chances of the proposal passing before legislators go home for the summer June 19 looked slim after a spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said he would not support the tax.

The one per cent tax hike floated by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz would apply to junk food, video games and television commercials, which Ortiz blames on New York's growing obesity problem. Ortiz, a Brooklyn Democrat, did not rule out proposing tax increases on other things that he believed contribute to obesity.

Some health experts contend people who regularly consume soft drinks and fast food and those who constantly watch TV and play video games instead of exercising are at risk of becoming severely overweight.

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Givne the cost that obesity creates for society, this might be a good idea.

[Firelad]

Yes, good idea. But who decides what to tax? Corruption.......

[August Borms]

They should tax fat people, not fat.

[yavoon]

holy retarded batman. u know instead of telling ppl u think something is wrong. we really should just tax it. there should be a murder tax. we dont like ppl driving big cars, lets tax gas. we dont like ppl smoking lets tax cigarettes. if u get too carried away the xtians are just gna pass a gay tax. and then yall will have been bit in ur own ass.

[MrWhereItsAt]

What?

[Spiffor]

Actually, what yavoon decries is a good idea (well, murder tax should go along with a real punishment too, of course).

In the case of tobacco, studies have shown the consumption really lowers when taxes rise. Most European cars are much more fuel-efficient than North-American cars because taxes make the prices of fuel extremely high here. Taxes do work, and taxes do allow to pay in order to clean the mess.

Taxing the fat is a good idea

[Skanky Burns]

But taxing video games?!? That is just wrong.

[Urban Ranger]

It's called an economic incentive

[Proteus_MST]

Sounds like a good idea (at least with respect to Junkfood and Softdrinks ).

But what about chocolate bars like Snickers or Mars?
Are they included within the Fast Food?
If not they should included too, because they could often also be responsible for obesity
(In germany we had a judge who consumed Chocolate Bars and Softdrinks en masse, instead of regular meals. In the end he was really fat and was suffering from Diabetes mellitus.
So he tried to sue the Coca Cola Company and Masterfood, who produce Snickers and Mars, for not warning the consumers, that the regular consumption of their products could cause obesity and Diabetes. Of course his Complaint was rejected at court. )

[Dr. Nick]

Obesity means that the fat person will cause the government a higher health expenditure. So they should directly tax fat people (fat by choice, rather than by nature).

[Urban Ranger]

Sometimes obesity is caused by genetics - so this approach is correct. Tax the fat ladden foods.

[Kaak]

we dont like ppl driving big cars, lets tax gas. we dont like ppl smoking lets tax cigarettes

ummm...gas already gets a hefty tax (upwards of 40 cents a gallon), and cigarettes are taxed even more....

[Boris Godunov]

The American gas tax is very, very low compared to most countries, especially in Europe. I am totally in favor of taxing gas much, much more.

If the government wants to tax unhealthy foods more, I don't have an ethical problem with it, but I wonder if it won't make the price of healthy foods go up as well, which would mean the poor would be screwed at both ends.

[SpencerH]

What's unhealthy food?

[Japher]

What's unhealthy food?

Anything they sell at the checkout line in Fry's