A new article from WalletPop.com is discussing the good and bad things that could come from a tax on soda/junk food. The article, titled Should we tax junk food to control obesity?, caught my attention right away.
Now, one might think that this is a good plan, since the article sights some very compelling statistics, including the following:
- 58 million people are overweight, 40 million are obese, and 3 million are morbidly obese
- Eight out of 10 are over 25 lbs. overweight
- 78% of Americans are not meeting basic activity level recommendations
- 25% are completely sedentary
- 76% increase in Type II diabetes in adults 30-40 years old since 1990
What does this mean to us? It means that, yes, we are getting fatter. A lot fatter. We are coming up with new products like body shapers to hide our fat rolls, and some sort of tape to make our arms look thinner! Don’t believe me? Check this out! And I don’t think anybody remembers the word “muffin top” ever being used until we started wearing pants that sat low enough on our hips to “show off” our fat rolls. By the way, if you have a muffin top, by a bigger size and a belt!
So we’re getting fatter! I hate it! I love to exercise, and I try to watch what I eat…but I’m not a health nut. I have junk food on occasion! I am not model thin, and don’t expect that I ever will be, since my goal is strength and not a 22 inch waistline. However, I keep my weight within a normal weight range and an average Body Fat Percentage. I worry about the people I see and know that don’t get any exercise, and don’t watch what they eat at all. I worry for their lives! I don’t, however, think that taxing the people to the poor house is the way to go about fixing it! We’re nuts if we think these people don’t know that this food/soda is bad for them. They know it! Punishing them (i.e. taxing them) for their “bad behaviour” is not a RIGHT that I want to give our government, thank you very much. The next thing you know, the government will be punishing us for all of our bad behaviours, like watching too much TV, not flossing and not recycling ALL of our trash! It’s not up to them to legislate our behaviour.
The article takes a much more positive approach to this tax then I would. Yes, it breaks my heart to see children and teenagers that are not active at all. 12 year old girls that have to shop in the “women’s plus” size section at a store because the cool, stylish clothes for their age don’t fit them. I want these people to get healthy as much as the next person, but it has to start at home. They have to decide for themselves that they are dissatisfied with how they look and how they feel. And then, they have to be mad enough at themselves to do something about it!
The article says that the taxes raised could be used for education and health programs. Yeah, it could, but it won’t be. Have we all forgotten the promise of lottery money being used for education (read this)? Think about it rationally, without emotion…you know as well as I do that they won’t use the money for what they say they will, or if they do, it will be like 1% of the revenue. Taxing these people won’t fix the problem, and I don’t want the government legislating what I do or don’t eat.
Tags: accountability, economy, Taxes
