Support the Fat Tax...Fat, not Flat.

Junk food tax is a step toward universal health

By Kelvin Wade | | October 1, 2009 14:52

Last month, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced he'd be seeking a tax on soft drinks at retail stores to fight obesity. Now San Francisco has replaced Berkeley in coming up with nutty ideas but this one isn't bad.

Kelly Brownell, an obesity expert at Yale University, and Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health are among many experts who advocate such a tax. According to a recent study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, adults who drink one soft drink per day are 27 percent more likely to be overweight or obese. For children, the risk of obesity increases 60 percent per daily serving of soda. It's no wonder we're a nation of porkers.

But I don't believe a tax on soft drinks goes far enough. Being someone with excess adipose tissue, I'm all too eager to place my gelatinous posterior behind the idea of a 'fat tax.' Junk foods are foods that no one needs to eat to survive and their consumption contributes to a societal problem. Tax it.

While I think we've gone to the tobacco well too often, it's not a bad idea to tax a product that causes so many health problems that burdens the health care industry. It both provides revenue and discourages use of tobacco.

And according to the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, the economic damage to California due to obesity in health care costs and worker productivity is $41 billion annually.

PSAs to change eating habits can only do so much. An ad promoting healthy eating can't compete with a steaming bag of golden brown French fries and a juicy burger glued together with cheese delivered through your car window for the fraction of the cost of a sit-down meal.

We know what changes behavior in our society. Sticker shock. I love steak but you won't see me eating at a Morton's or Ruth's Chris that often. Why? The problem isn't gastronomic, it's economic. I can't afford to eat at those places that often.

No one likes taxes. But this is a consumption tax that is completely avoidable. No one has to drink sugar water in order to survive. It is possible (at least I think it's possible) to go through life without hitting a drive-thru and supersizing your order.

Of course, a user fee like this is best levied at the state level. San Francisco and other places doing this on their own will just drive down sales in their area and increase them in others. It would be unfair to those businesses. That's why it should be a state levy like tobacco taxes.

It's amazing that we've had a health care debate in this country all summer talking about universal coverage, insurance premiums, preexisting conditions and government options without actually debating health. There's been precious little talk about preventive care, the thing that will save us the most money on health care.

If a soft drink or junk food tax helped prod people like me to make better choices and brought in revenue for health care, how can that be a bad thing? Peace.

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NOTES: To me, this is a no brainer. We tax booze and tobacco, the so-called 'sin taxes.' It's the right thing to do because those two substances wreak havoc on our society. Tobacco kills over 400,000 Americans a year and sickens more. You add in the amount of fires caused by cigarettes smoked in bed or flicked out a car window and you have more carnage. Have you ever tried to get the stench of tobacco out of a room or vehicle?

Then there's alcohol, the most socially destructive chemical in the world. It kills thousands on the roads. It causes accidents that injures thousands. People die of alcohol poisoning and liver ailments. Alcohol plays a role in divorce, fights, spousal abuse, rapes, and murders.

Obesity costs money. It costs money in health care and it costs in lost worker productivity. It costs society in many other ways. We can't be a nation of Jabba the Hutts. And look, we know people aren't packing on the pounds eating fruits and vegetables. It makes sense to discourage consumption of junk food by taxing it, while at the same time raising revenue for health care. Look, it'll take a lot to get people to stop eating crap. We love crap. Especially with cheese on it. And supersized for just pennies more. Given the choice between the 16 oz. drink and the 55 gallon drum, we're going for the drum.

The WIC program, which gives food vouchers to the poor, added fruits and vegetables to their program on October 1st. It's about time. It's strange how throughout human history, overweight people were the wealthy in society. The poor were scrawny and hungry. But in America, we have the fattest poor people in the world. If someone is taking government vouchers for food, those vouchers should be for healthy food.

A year or so ago, McDonalds increased it's Double Cheeseburger by a dime and they haven't noticed a drop off in sales. If we're going to be a nation that has access to junk food everywhere we look with the result being a detriment to society, why shouldn't we try to get something positive out of it. People are willing to pay it.

Because we're pigs.