"Their suffering comes back to me in the form of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, diseases we all pay for because, again as conservatives insist, we can?t kill grandma."
Why would you kill yours???
Leave politics out of it....we do not need taxes to solve a problem. EDUCATION is the answer not more government control. That is an entirely liberal socialist idea.
The American obesity epidemic is gaining the notice of the tax man.
Spurred by studies in the Archives of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Public Health indicating that higher prices would indeed reduce demand for sugary sodas, cash-strapped states are looking to put the bite on that Dr Pepper.
Protests from conservatives notwithstanding industrial policy — taxes and tax incentives — have driven the American economy since the Erie Canal.
It was not the market alone that created today’s world of freeways and suburbs. Policy played a big role, too. The Interstates were government projects, and every state’s transportation department is filled with real estate interests.
The same is true with food. Government policies going back a century have emphasized the value of cheap proteins and carbohydrates. This not only made food cheap for Americans. It raised living standards around the world.
The real “giant sucking sound” is the Mexican public gorging on sodas and getting nearly as fat as Americans, in just 10 years.
But science is telling us that more is not better. I am writing this from Kingsville, Tx., on family business. I have seen some fat, fat, fat people, people as addicted to sodas, chips and big portions of meat as any crack addict.
Their suffering comes back to me in the form of chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, diseases we all pay for because, again as conservatives insist, we can’t kill grandma.
But taxes on empty calories are only a band-aid on a larger problem. Economic incentives are far more important:
- Local producers can’t compete on price against mass-production half a nation or half a world away.
- Poor people can’t access fresh food if there is no store selling it within walking distance.
- Quality calories cost too much and junk calories cost too little.
All of these problems are open to economic incentives. We can reduce subsidies for corporate farmers and replace them with incentives for small farmers, even urban farmers. Instead of subsidizing far-flung suburban development, we can put that money into intown, commercial projects.
There are many things we can do, politically, to get healthier. More parks, closer to people. Sidewalks. Walking paths that connect cul de sacs. Simply asking soda companies to change policies has had an impact on school kids’ health.
The point is that all industries respond to economic incentives as well as disincentives. If you want better food then create policies that encourage it. Our food producers are not bad guys, they’re good guys. They want to eat too. When they are shown they can make more money with healthier goods, they will respond.
Just don’t expect them to support those new policies when you first propose them. Inertia is more than a good idea – it’s the law.
