Sin Tax: Why The Government Should Tax Unhealthy Drinks

With obesity rates increasing at an exponential rate, a tax on fat foods and specifically high sugar beverages of 20% or about 1 cent per ounce could reduce obesity rates by 3.5%, bringing the rate down to 30% among adults (Kalaidis). While 3.5% may not sound like a lot, if you take an approximate U.S. population of 350 million people, suddenly that mere 3.5% turns into over 12 million Americans who would no longer be considered obese. Marion Nestle, a well-respected expert in food policy, recently conducted a study investigating the impact of a junk food tax through predictive modeling. Her study revealed that 2,600 deaths, 9,500 heart attacks, and 240,000 new cases of diabetes could be prevented with a simple 1 cent per ounce tax on sugary beverages (Satran). A junk food tax of this kind could greatly increase the health of the American public as a whole by reducing death rates and healthcare

“ We have become a fast food Nation of bulging waistlines and high blood pressures.”,said Ronnie Cummins in his article, “ Tax on Junk Food Can Help Pay the Costs of Diet-Related Diseases.” Diet related obesity,diabetes and heart diseases are now USA’s number 1 public health problems because of non-healthy foods,this is why there should be a tax on junk food,why we should serve healthier lunches in school cafeterias ,and why we should restrict advertisements of junk foods in the mass media.Would taxing junk food ,eating healthier ,and restricting junk food advertisements be so bad if you thought about how many people it could save?

Even if consumers stop buying a certain type of junk food, they will move on to something else that all before wasn’t considered “unhealthy” until people started gaining weight from it. With having that opinion, to me there is no need to even put a tax on junk food in the first place.

The United States of America is known for having a high obesity level. According to David Frum from CNN, except for Mexicans, American citizens are more likely to become obese than any other nationality. Some obese countries have enforced an extra high tax on fast foods and other high calorie foods, and many people believe that the U.S. should adopt the fat tax as well. According to Dictionary.com, the fat tax is “a tax imposed on or proposed for high-fat or otherwise unhealthy foodstuffs”. Although a tax on junk food could reduce obesity, the low prices could protect low income families from going broke, and therefore a tax on junk food would not be beneficial to America.

In many households, these options are the only options to eat at all. Taxing soda is only a gateway into placing a sin tax on many other unhealthy products and this will have a detrimental effect on low income families that rely on cheap, fast, easy processed food to eat. A better option to combat obesity and diabetes would be to make healthy options more accessible to the average home. There is no reason that eating organic can cost almost twice as much as eating non-organic. There is no reason that a burger costs a dollar when a salad costs five. If instead of focusing on making more profit off of taxing soda, and more focus was placed on making fresh meats, produce, and dairy accessible, the demand for unhealthy products will naturally decrease without damaging low income households. Gorman touches on this briefly by saying, “[t]he biggest solution is to encourage and support people to drink water instead of sugar.” (Gorman) Just the act of encouraging people to make healthy choices could make a world of difference, but instead the advertising markets are dominated by big cooperate soda companies. A balance of public announcements about healthy options could help knock down the consumption of

While not the leading cause of death (mortality), there is a high prevalence of both obesity and diabetes in the population, justifying the selection of these health issues to be addressed in the

The government can make money by taxing unhealthy fast food and use it for education and less expensive gym memberships. If there was money invested in more education about healthy eating, young adults would have a better understanding of what is healthy. The teachers could teach the class on how to eat healthy and what kinds of healthy foods there are. The extra money could be used for a nutritionist or a chef that specializes in healthy foods. The less expensive gym memberships would mean that more people would afford to join. The nutritionist expert believes that putting in more money into school programs would increase the healthy food intake. Mark Bittman, author of Bad Food? Tax It, and Subsidize Vegetables states, “Rather than subsidizing the production of unhealthful foods, we should turn the tables and tax things like soda, French fries, doughnuts and hyperprocessed snacks” (35). Most would believe that unhealthy food should be taxed rather than healthy food. If the the government wants the people to eat healthy, then start taxing the unhealthy food, so the healthy food is cheaper. A hamburger cost $1 and a salad costs about $5. Which one would the people want to buy? The hamburger because it is cheaper and delicious. The salad may be healthier, but the hamburger is way cheaper. A study has shown that a penny-per-ounce tax on unhealthy food would generate about billions of dollars in income and it

Who has not eaten junk food at least once? I did it, and to me, as to many Americans, the junk food is the most delicious type of food. However, I know it is the unhealthiest food and the main cause of obesity in the United States. On the other hand, the U.S. government feels that is important to intervene in junk food lover’s lives to help them to improve their health and their food choices. In order to combat the obesity and other health problems that junk food causes, the U.S. government has been looking for many ways to prevent and decrease the number of obese people in the country. They believe that adding taxes to the junk food is a great idea that might help people to

The United States of America, a nation that is known for it’s power, independence, and obesity. In the past few decades, this country has been suffering from an epidemic of obesity and diabetes. The government should increase the sales tax on fatty and high-sugar junk food to encourage healthy eating and help the American people. The revenue raised could be used to support greater causes and pay for health care reform. This might be the solution this country needs.

Eating unhealthy foods is one of the major causes of obesity today; but should there be a higher tax on all soft drinks and junk food? Should people be punished for eating what they want? Yes, there are health risks involved with an unhealthy diet but is a higher taxing on these foods the right alternative? With the price of healthcare raising maybe the extra tax could help alleviate it, maybe not. Perhaps the higher tax will turn people away from buying unhealthy foods and drinks. Consuming unwholesome food can lead to clogged arteries, heart attacks and many other fatal illnesses. Buying the healthier substitute may help our

“A major concern at this time is the rapid climb in incidence of Type 2 diabetes, with prevalence now estimated at about 9% (18 million) of the population greater than 20 years of age.” Obesity and Type 2 diabetes are commonly associated (Gould & Dyer, 2011). In addition to the two types of diabetes, there are signs and symptoms that are easily detected and some that develop after diagnosis.

Paying taxes is something everyone does. We pay taxes on cars, property, and on our income. What about the junk food we consume? This has been debated for years that it will or will not work. How do we educate the public? Why should we do it? Where will the money be going? What groups will it serve? Prices are already high, so where is the money coming from? Everything that is done must be motivated because if not, it becomes a fad - here today and gone tomorrow. Only things that are done repetitively are made into habits. As a person, all things can be done if we have a desire and a need. Taxes on junk food and soda will not work unless everyone is educated on the utilization of revenues, health advantages, and motivated sufficiently to make a more healthy change.

“Sin” taxes have been proven as a way to curtail known unhealthy behaviors. Soda taxes are most accepted if taxes collected are earmarked for health specific programs (Chaufin et al., 2010). The cons are the consumers are the voters and taxing may equate to loss of votes, taxing may not be equitable to individuals that do not have the disease, and finally, an undue burden may be placed on lower socio-economic demographics as these groups often have limited access to food vendors that primarily sale what would be considered taxed foods. Though these sin taxes are proven to work well with tobacco and alcohol consumption, altering a persons’ diet needs to be more individualized and realistically approached. Lower socio-economic individuals should not feel added burden as a tax; which would be a negative impact (Kuchar et al., 2005). Legality issues are regarded as low, but would require state government support to enact. This would likely not be popularly accepted and have a minimal impact for any increase in tax rate.

Obesity in the United States has more than doubled over the past four decades. Prevalence of obesity cause many other disease such as diabetes and heart issues. Obesity can be described as a health condition of a person or people of a population that have excess body fat. Diabetes is a disease related to high level of blood sugar in the blood. Obesity and diabetes are among disease that have direct relationship with each other. As obesity increase in a population, diabetes increases too. Jennifer B.Marks, Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller researches in “Obesity in America: it’s getting worse”, Roger Z. Joanne a public health provider in the Obesity Action Coalition group researches in “Obesity and type 2 Diabetes”, Eckel H. Robert, Professor of Medicine in Colorado University researches in “Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: What can be Unified and What needs to Be Individualized”, and Obesity Society group researches in “Your weight and diabetes”, mention that while obesity and diabetes have different definition in medical process, the reason why people become obese and diabetic as well as how to prevent them is same. Eating larger portion size than what the body needs , lack of physical activity, and putting foods without good quality in diet are the major reasons that people become obese.

Most commonly, sin taxes are excise or consumption taxes that charge fees for guilty pleasures or human indulgence. (Lorenzi, Sin Taxes 60) Sin taxes, therefore, are intended to encourage citizens to consume or use taxed items responsibly or discourage behavior associated with the consumption of taxed items. Goods or services generally taxed through sin tax policy have some common characteristics including inelastic demand, promote behavior that is harmful to the individual, and promote behavior that is harmful to others. (Lorenzi, Sin Taxes 60) Goods or services targeted by sin taxes have an inelastic demand because they are generally habitual, addictive, or highly pleasurable. (Lorenzi, Sin Taxes 60) Further, these goods or services are targeted by sin tax legislation because consuming or utilizing the good or services can lead to self-destructive behavior, negative consequences for communities, and generally are considered socially undesirable. Thus, sin taxes are not prohibitive; citizens are allowed to consume targeted goods and services as long as the tax is not steep enough to make consumption of the good or service impossible. (Viscusi 556) Further, the voluntary nature of sin taxes is generally more tolerable than involuntary nature of income taxes. (Schmidt, Barr and Swanson 1677)