This arose from a bit of chat with Sarahfeena. She reported that Santa Clara County in CA has banned toys in Happy Meals for anti-fat reasons. This brought up a bit of soap boxing by me on Sin Taxes.
To me the reason we tax Cigarettes, Alcohol and Gas now is that they are easy to tax, the government can half-sell it as encouraging people to quit or reduce and most importantly they are major streams of tax money that are at least semi-voluntary.
Now I would extend this to a sugar/fat tax against sugary drinks, most fast food items, prepared junk food and etc. A fairly simple fat/calorie formula would have to be derived to do this.
I am also in favor of legalizing most or all drugs and taxing them heavy; at least as heavy as cigs and liquor. I am a big supporter of UHC and all these various sin taxes should help to pay for it. The bonus of the drug legalization is to seriously reduce the warehousing of young prisoners and turning them into long term criminals. The savings there would be huge. The prison money saved alone could probably pay for the additional rehabs we should have. It would also free up law enforcement for real crimes. (Or heaven forbid allow for slow reduction.)
Now to those that might say, “But fast food is not addicting”, I say bull. McDonald’s French Fries are pretty addicting to fat people or for many Colas are very addicting. I am a fat person, I find drinking beer in moderation very easy. I gave up drugs with great ease when I chose to. Giving up fatty foods and etc. NOT EASY. To me it is the same thing. Bad Food, Cigarettes, Alcohol and Drugs all general lead to cost to the states and government in medical care. So a sin tax is as appropriate for fast food and the like as it is for our current items.
Jim (I am a very odd mix of Liberal minded fiscal conservative.)