TheIslander
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From a Land Surrounded by Sea.
Posts: 403
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Post by TheIslander on May 13, 2010 21:03:06 GMT -5
An NY governor has suggested a 15% increase on non-diet soft drinks.
Do you acknowledge obesity as an issue? Is it a great enough issue to apply tax on?
This tax, while prompting people to purchase healthier items, may harmfully target poor communities, is the cost worth the benefit?
Discuss.
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Post by that1guy2 on May 13, 2010 21:10:42 GMT -5
Well, diet-soft drinks would still be just as cheap... Since regular soda isn't addictive as far as I know it shouldn't be that harmful to poor communities. Whether this is a good reason to tax these drinks or not I don't know.
They seem to do this kind of stuff all the time in New York (or is it just New York City? I'm not entirely sure), so everyone there is probably used to it by now.
That's my 2 cents.
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Post by Benyamin on May 13, 2010 21:13:02 GMT -5
I heard about this. I do think obesity is a serious issue. I heard somewhere that its the #1 health concern for america. however, I do not think it should be taxed.
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Post by that1guy2 on May 13, 2010 21:18:49 GMT -5
btw- this topic probably shouldn't be called "obesity tax" because it's kind of misleading.
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Post by Trey on May 13, 2010 21:31:03 GMT -5
Well, diet-soft drinks would still be just as cheap... Since regular soda isn't addictive as far as I know it shouldn't be that harmful to poor communities. Whether this is a good reason to tax these drinks or not I don't know. When you say "Regular Soda", do you mean Coke, Pepsi, and stuff like that? If you do, you should be more aware of caffeine, which is extremely addictive xD
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Post by jmejia1187 on May 13, 2010 21:45:33 GMT -5
Actually, sugar is addictive. Like high fructose corn syrup in all soft drinks.Harmful to poor communities? What do you mean? If you mean that these people don't have other options, then you're wrong. Water in NY is free! And powdered drinks will not be affected So... If people are really poor, the tax wont really matter, mainly because if they are so poor that grocery shopping is an issue, they shouldn't be indulging in these kinds of drinks, when water from the tap is free.
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Post by newschooled on May 13, 2010 22:06:49 GMT -5
Well, as far as targeting poor communities...I think that point is a croc. Things are tight for me right now, as I'm sure many others. So I don't buy pop. It's not essential. This is common sense.
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on May 14, 2010 0:06:32 GMT -5
^ That. I honestly don't see it being a big deal. I actually recently (last few months or so) cut soda out of my diet. Funny thing is after a while of not drinking it, I stopped wanting it anyway. So maybe it is addictive to an extent.
In Canada, food is GST (sales tax) exempt, but snack items, carbonated drinks and the sort are not tax exempt. So it's really not that far off what we have here, except that you guys don't have the base sales tax to begin with.
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Post by Joey on May 14, 2010 8:47:02 GMT -5
I think that if they are going to be taxing soda, they should tax all kinds. None of it is good for you. Diet erodes your teeth, regular gives you too-much sugar. Tax all or none.
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Post by UnfairBear on May 14, 2010 9:05:19 GMT -5
Diet soda has a buttload of additives and sweeteners that cause cancer and other nasty things. They're just as unhealthy as normal soda except they dont make you fat.
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on May 14, 2010 11:20:17 GMT -5
Ah yes, I was going to mention that and forgot. Diet soda would have to be taxed along with regular. The idea would be to get people to convert to healthier drinks like pure juices or plain old water.
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RabbitWho
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Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
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Post by RabbitWho on May 14, 2010 11:31:07 GMT -5
Diet soft drinks are filled with aspartine, I'd rather be a fat sugar addict than have cancer. I mean I know everything causes cancer.. but aspartine really really causes cancer.
Anyway agreed.. tax them both.. it absolutely will not deter anything as these things are impossible to give up without really putting in a conscious effort... but there will be more money to spend on health care for the problems we cause ourselves by eating too much crap.
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Post by newschooled on May 14, 2010 12:15:21 GMT -5
Has anyone noticed that bottled water is more expensive than pop now?!? Fail.
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Post by Johncoyne on May 14, 2010 14:14:41 GMT -5
There's one factor you're forgetting: New York needs money. We're in debt. So, what better way for the government is there than to hide it behind some sort of health mumbo-jumbo? Exactly.
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on May 14, 2010 16:03:20 GMT -5
If you're going to tax things for extra money, and can do so by taxing a non-necessity that is generally bad for people anyway, I don't see why anyone would object. (The alternative is tax everyone or tax something else.) Especially if the money is put back toward health, but even if not.
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TheIslander
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From a Land Surrounded by Sea.
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Post by TheIslander on May 14, 2010 16:48:51 GMT -5
Is the concept of taxing such goods right? I mean, cigarettes are heavily taxed (where I live at least) and people still buy them. If we are looking to make people move towards healthier alternatives, why tax?
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Post by stephen5000 on May 14, 2010 18:11:27 GMT -5
There are a lot of things that aren't good for you (and I don't think that's a good reason to tax something). If they need the money and want to impose a sales tax, they should choose a large category of items. It seems unfair to single out a particular product (especially if they make exemptions for "diet" drinks that may have their own problems).
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Nakor
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Post by Nakor on May 14, 2010 19:03:53 GMT -5
So you're suggesting something like a tax on all food items that can be considered "junk" food? Because I could see that.
And before anyone argues that nobody could make that discrepancy (what is and isn't junk food/drink), remember that Canada already does.
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RabbitWho
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Rebecca - How 'bout we all put or real names somewhere in our signatures or titles? [SKB:]
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Post by RabbitWho on May 14, 2010 19:05:20 GMT -5
Is the concept of taxing such goods right? I mean, cigarettes are heavily taxed (where I live at least) and people still buy them. If we are looking to make people move towards healthier alternatives, why tax? Well I don't know about where you live, but in Ireland I think we have the second highest tax on cigarettes in the world.. I can't remember where I heard that.. anyway it's 8 euro for 20 cigarettes, but that still doesn't cover the cost of smoking related diseases and illnesses to the health care system. So absolutely they should tax cigarettes, the people get the money back again in the end so it's not really being taken from them. It means that when they get sick there will be facilities available to them whether they can afford to pay it or not.
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TheIslander
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From a Land Surrounded by Sea.
Posts: 403
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Post by TheIslander on May 15, 2010 1:37:33 GMT -5
Is the concept of taxing such goods right? I mean, cigarettes are heavily taxed (where I live at least) and people still buy them. If we are looking to make people move towards healthier alternatives, why tax? Well I don't know about where you live, but in Ireland I think we have the second highest tax on cigarettes in the world.. I can't remember where I heard that.. anyway it's 8 euro for 20 cigarettes, but that still doesn't cover the cost of smoking related diseases and illnesses to the health care system. So absolutely they should tax cigarettes, the people get the money back again in the end so it's not really being taken from them. It means that when they get sick there will be facilities available to them whether they can afford to pay it or not. That is even more expensive than where I live. If it was so harmful, they would ban them. Tax is just a legal way of the government stealing your money. With that said, I completely agree with taxing cigarettes - just not as much as they are taxed in say Ireland as you mention. Such taxes are ridiculous. But why would one tax soft drinks? Is it right to tax "junk" food? Won't most people still purchase junk food as with cigarettes?
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