Fast food
The Associated Press

A gold mine for government?

Featured Topic | Posted 9 weeks 17 hours ago

Would you like a sin tax with that Big Mac?

Tobacco and alcohol have long been subject to "sin taxes" used by state and federal governments to pay for children's and health programs. Now a new sin may join the list: Fast food.

New Jersey Gov. John Corzine was recently reported as being open to a tax on the drive-thru joints as a way to help pay for the state's underfunded hospitals. Advocates have suggested such a tax might make unhealthy food less attractive. But critics, such as State Sen. Richard Codey, say a tax on fast food "is a tax on the poor."

Should fast food be taxed?

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Ben likes: The war on fat

Jacob Sullum/Reason

Before you dismiss this agenda as the pie-in-the-sky wish list of wannabe social engineers, consider the trajectory of the Twinkie tax, which has gone from reductio ad absurdum to serious policy proposal in just a few years. In a June 1994 newspaper ad that criticized proposals to sharply raise tobacco taxes, R.J. Reynolds said: "Today it's cigarettes. Will high-fat foods be next?" Anti-smoking activists traditionally responded to this sort of slippery-slope argument by insisting that cigarettes were unique, "the only legal product that when used as intended causes death." To suggest that anti-smoking measures might pave the way for attacks on cheeseburgers and ice cream, they said, was just silly.

Yet six months after R.J. Reynolds tried to scare people with the outlandish prospect of a tax on fatty foods, Yale University's Kelly Brownell endorsed the idea on the op-ed page of The New York Times, citing the precedent set by cigarette taxes. He said "taxing foods with little nutritional value" would deter consumption and help raise money for bike paths, running tracks, and nutrition education. "Fatty foods would be judged on their nutritive value per calorie or gram of fat," he explained. "The least healthy would be given the highest tax rate."

 

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Joel likes: Supertax me

Martin B. Schmidt/New York Times

If the low “cost” of eating fast food is adding to the obesity problem, the solution involves increasing the cost, even in a nominal way. How do we give individuals the incentive to pay a little more — increased physical exertion, lack of convenience — to get their food? This is where a drive-through tax comes in.

We could tax the drive-through purchases at, say, 10 percent, while leaving the purchase of walk-in meals alone. At the very least, it may entice some to park and walk rather than waiting in the car.

Now, this may seem an invasion of personal choice or another step toward a nanny state. Maybe. But there are other arguments to be made. We tax cigarettes in part because of their health cost. Similarly, the individual’s decision to lead a sedentary lifestyle will end up costing taxpayers. In 2001, the surgeon general issued a report noting that obesity and its complications cost the nation $117 billion annually, much of it through Medicare and Medicaid.

Imposing a drive-through tax would be one way of recouping future taxpayer outlays — perhaps revenues could go directly to government health programs. And who knows, it could help the environment, too: with one move, we could fight obesity and reduce emissions from all those cars idling in the line at Burger King.

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Thoughts

Learn from history

Submitted on May 4th, 2008 by Anonymous

There's another high profile case where an addictive mainstay of American culture with a negative impact on health was given a penalty tax. Have the taxes on tobacco stopped the health problems it causes?

Sin ?

Submitted on May 3rd, 2008 by John 2000

Those who do this sort of thing are the sinners. The Sin is state-gluttiny.

Ridiculous!

Submitted on May 3rd, 2008 by Renee

It is ridiculous to think that a tax on fast food will magically cure the obesity epidemic... as though every overweight/obese person will put down their burger pick up a salad and ride their bike to work, or that the funds raised will even put a dent into the cost of caring for the comorbidities associated with obesity. Furthermore, how can we use the "my body, my choice" line to promote one political agenda but tax someone for what they put into their body to promote another political agenda?

Congressional Fat

Submitted on May 3rd, 2008 by John 2000

Let's tax the indirect fat taxes that that congress imposes as a natural matter of course. Let's tax their pension fund and their lobbyist income.

Let's have them exchange hot-air credits to help the environment.

Bah!

you're an oxymoron

Submitted on May 3rd, 2008 by Anonymous

i get your point, but authoritarianism can come from the left OR the right. liberal is by definition anti-authoritarian.

if you watch glenn beck or read jonah goldberg, you've probably been lobotomized against your will already. good luck being stupid in our brave new Chicago School world.

no easy answers

Submitted on May 3rd, 2008 by Anonymous

I'm all for banning drive-throughs and trans fats, but taxing the poor and lazy is a bad idea. We don't have much money to begin with, and it won't make us run out to the local produce section and start grazing on lettuce.

We'll just go buy whatever processed garbage is at the supermarket and get even fatter.

I didn't stop eating crap until my girlfriend educated me on nutrition.

I didn't start exercising until i moved to an older neighborhood, where i could walk everywhere.

I'm now 50 lbs lighter, and without too much hard work. Fast food makes me sick now.

Legislate better community design and we'll get off foreign oil easier and be more healthy. Maybe teach people in school what fast food does to their bodies.

TV Tax?

Submitted on May 3rd, 2008 by The Big Klosowski

That's fascinating. I had no idea.

beware

Submitted on May 2nd, 2008 by John 2000

the steady march of the smiley liberal fascists.

Lets Tax Television As Well

Submitted on May 2nd, 2008 by Anonymous

Face it, the problem with this country is lack of physical activity. Place a monthly tax based on the size and type of television, number of televisions per households etc. in order to get people to be discouraged to sit and watch t.v. The UK already has a tv tax based on whether you have a colour tv or black and white, number or tv and so forth, why not here in the US?

If we are really this concerned, let the government require mandatory workout times for everyone. Require every person workout 3 days a week or they'll be fined. We can establish a new division in the Department of Health just to monitor everyone to ensure health codes are met. Those that do not meet body fat standards can imprisoned until they are within regulation. All food will be categorized into two groups: healthy foods and contraband. Those selling contraband (such as trans fat) will be imprisoned....or we can realize that its just food and let people eat what they want to eat.

Obviously, the group of Americans that desire free speech regardless of content, flag burning, assisted suicide, deregulation of marijuana, and a free pass for illegal immigrants don't feel that Americans should have the freedom to smoke cigarettes or eat whatever pleases them.