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Why Tax Just Soda? Why Not Tax Sugar?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
A recent revenue-enhancement fad in local government is to levy a tax on soft drinks. The tax is marketed to voters as a means of reducing soda consumption, which is presumed to be a contributor to the explosive rise in Type II diabetes, and more broadly, metabolic syndrome or diabesity.
While the intake of sugar/high fructose and sweetened beverages is certainly detrimental to health (see links below), it seems taxing sodas is more a topical excuse for skimming a new revenue stream than a meaningful way to reduce obesity/diabesity.
I have covered America's declining health and fitness and the dramatic impact of high-sugar diets for many years:
This Nation's Devolution from Quality to Convenience (January 4, 2010)
The American Diet: Self-Destruction Never Tasted So Good (November 21, 2012)
The Obesity Puzzle (December 5, 2012)
Please view this documentary on the science of sugar consumption:
Sugar: the Bitter Truth (1 hr 29 minutes; University of California TV)
So here's the obvious question for proponents of sugary sodas: why tax only sodas? If sugar is the addictive culprit, then why not tax everything that has sugar as an ingredient?
That list would include most of what many Americans consume on a daily basis:
-- sweetened coffee drinks
-- sweetened ice teas
-- sweetened "sports drinks"
-- doughnuts, pastries, cakes, pies, etc.
-- milk shakes
-- sweetened salad dressings
ice cream, frozen yogurt, whipped cream, etc.
-- sweetened cold cereals
-- sweetened yogurts
-- sweetened fruit cups, canned fruits, etc.
-- sweetened breads, rolls, rice puddings, etc.
This is just a partial listing; the full list of foods containing sugar or equivalents includes a vast array of packaged and fast foods--the mainstays of the typical convenience-basedderealized American diet.
Here is an advert for a typical sugar-bomb "fake-food" in the American diet which I have "re-realized": (for more on derealization, see I Dig Dirt: The Remedy for Derealization July 23, 2011)
Here is a chart showing the extraordinary rise in consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in the U.S.:
The impact of empty sugar calories and the addictive qualities of sugar can be seen in these maps of obesity prevalence by state, from 1985 to 2008. Note how the maps track the rise in HFCS:
Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Obesity Trends 1985-2013 (map shown is from 2008)
Clearly, obesity has exploded into a pandemic in just a single generation, and the correlation to the astounding increase in sugar consumption is self-evident.
But hey, local governments: why stop at sugar? How about taxing red meat, refined carbohydrates and all the other bad things we consume? The negative impact of a diet heavy with factory-raised red meat and heavily refined carbohydrates is well-documented; why pick on soda, when virtually everything in the packaged-food/fast-food diet is also detrimental to health?
And why stop at taxing unhealthy food? Why not tax unhealthy lifestyles? Those who don't eat their broccoli and aren't fit should be taxed; after all, it isn't just eating too much sugar that's the problem; it's lack of exercise that burns off those empty calories.
The absurdity of taxing us to health is obvious - as is the unlimited greed and avarice of local government for more tax revenues, by any means available. Eat sugar, go to jail. The local Gulag would love it.
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Because there's a humongolgodly powerful sugar lobby.
A bittersweet perspective...
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/20/leading-sugarcoated-lives-in-...
Sugar should no more be taxed as soda should not be taxed under some pretense of community benevolence. Let people make their own fucking decisions. What, you say, now that ObieCare is done by the goobermint then they should have a say? Nope. Last time I checked, all the ObieCare enrollees had alternative choices and pay insurance premiums like every other private citizen.
Goobermenit our of our lives
OK, Republicans. Y'all gonna fight this or pass it?
Principles before personalities.
Decisions like this mean the White House in 2 years, like it or not
Whether it really means anything or not
Sure - tax everything.
But the most important thing is that you give the money to central planners because they (1) know what they are doing and (2) know what is good for YOU.
Better yet, don't subsidize sugar and corn in the first place.
Create a problem, create a solution that's worse than the problem. Overlords profit, population suffers.
Rinse, repeat.
Ok, the data shows the US getting fatter.
But what about the rest of the world???
According to other studies, the arabs in the middle east(OPEC countries) are MUCH more fatter than the rest of the world...
Google is your friend...
There is only one way to kill capitalism- taxes, taxes, and more taxes.
-Karl Marx
I have a better idea. How about NO taxes!
Why not just tax everything and everybody? .....Oh wait......yeah they already do that.
What do you get when you eat too much sugar?
Die-BEETus.
pure sugar isn't the issue. Corn syrup sweeteners and all that bullshit are the health problem. I can't believe that in that whole article there wasn't a single mention of Aspartame, which is the worst of the sweetner shit that's in all these drinks and foods.
Food and drinks don't need to be taxed for consumption. The evil fucking companies that use all this nasty shit in this fake "food" should be fined billions of dollars for fucking everything up. These companies are no different than chemical weapons manufacturers or companies who polute the environment by dumping shit in our waters.
http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/aspartame.htm
Aspartame is marketed as NutraSweet, Equal Spoonful, Benevia, NatraTaste and since the patent on it has now expired it likely will come on the market under many different names.Undoubtedly you have heard that Aspartame is a safe sweetener and people use it to loose weight. Unfortunately that information is criminally false and misleading. You can find out more about how public relations firms shape and manipulate the public's beliefs on the "Why you believe what you believe" page.
Aspartame is made of 3 components, 50% phenylalanine, 40% aspartic acid and 10% methanol (wood alcohol). In the body methanol breaks down into formaldehyde (embalming fluid) and formic acid.
The top 10 worst sources of aspartame
Products containing aspartameThe following are well-known products that use aspartame:
Key to health: Low-Sugar, not sugar-freeStocking up on diet foods is the best way to gain weight. Latest research on aspartame has revealed that it actually increases the risk of weight gain. Being 200 times sweeter than sugar, aspartame appears to be the perfect answer to dieting since it contains only a few calories while still having the sweet taste of sugar. Unfortunately, phenylalanine and aspartic acid, major components of aspartame, trigger the release of insulin and leptins. The latter are hormones that stimulate storage of body fat.
Moreover, large doses of phenylalanine lower serotonin levels and lead to food cravings. Since both real and artificial sweeteners stimulate the taste buds, they affect the same taste and pleasure pathways in the brain. Artificial sweeteners, however, merely activate but do not satiate the pleasure-related region of the brain, proving to be an inferior system in preventing sugar cravings. In the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, researcher Qing Yang - a faculty at the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology - published findings that revealed artificial sweeteners more likely to cause weight gain than weight loss.
This is over and above the fact that aspartame is also highly addictive. The phenylalanine and methanol components increase the dopamine levels in the brain and cause a certain high. This further creates an addiction that is only made worse by the release of methyl alcohol or methanol, which is considered a narcotic. Keeping this in mind, it's time we reconsider the "health benefits" aspartame is supposed to give.
Aspartame accounts for over 75 percent of the adverse reactions to food additives reported to the FDA. Many of these reactions are very serious, including seizures and death. A few of the 90 different documented symptoms listed in the report as part of aspartame dangers are:
Headaches/migraines Dizziness Seizures Nausea Numbness Muscle spasms Weight gain Rashes Depression Fatigue Irritability Tachycardia Insomnia Vision problems Hearing loss Heart palpitations Breathing difficulties Anxiety attacks Slurred speech Loss of taste Tinnitus Vertigo Memory loss Joint pain
High Fructose Corn Syrup.
subsidised GMO-corn, heavily doused in glyphosate, tested on the Vietnam era peoples for "effectiveness".
the dark humour? "Roundup Ready" fud for fattening up the cattle/chattel. rollin' lil doggies, rollin'
with you on Rumsfeld's Aspartame, just another little add to keep the minds dysfunction-ing. . .
IN PRAISE OF SUGAR: Our modern day policed, spied-upon and regulated-to-death world is enough to sap the strength out of anyone. It's a gumption killer. It has to be that way so our political class can live out their fantasies.
Now, who wouldn't welcome a shot of sugar? (well, it's better than coke/speed/whatever, right?)
/S
WHY NOT TAX SEX YOU FUCKING LOW LIFE SCOM SHIT BALL ANTI-SOCIAL GLOBAL WARMING LIB-TARDS!!??
Taxing sugar has nothing to do with preventing or reducing obesity. It's just another hopeful revenue stream couched in a PC, must do something about this situation, approach. Same as always.
If people want to lose weight and get in shape it is not that difficult. Trying eating primarily veggies, a little meat and some quality fat and get off your ass. Hell, walking is simple and still free but my, my you do have to turn of the TV. I cringe when people say they have no time to exercise but watch hours of TV a day.
I was 50lbs over weight at one point in my life. I quit telling myself excuses and found a way to shed it sensibly. I've kept if off for years just exercising regularly and eating basic unprocessed foods. My energy level is through the roof. I remember before when I ate crap I felt exhausted all the time. I think people feel like shit today and think it is normal. I wish they could be shown a better way but taxing sugar isn't the way to this kind of awakening.
Miffed
Hey Miffed, in case you are looking for good information:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/
pods
Here's the dilemma. You don't want to tax sugar......fine.
Yet you want to tax my earning, to buy scooters for ever slob that doesn't exercise control over what they put in their mouth. We defend their right to eat whatever they want....they you steal money from me to pay for their scooter and their health care and their disability.
SCREW THAT...I'M PISSED....and I don't care any more. Forget sugar...here's what I think.
eat whatever you want......and pay for 100% of your own damn healthcare.
force me to pay for your fatass scooter and your healthcare and your depression medicine.....then I should have a say over what you put in your mouth. You don't want my say!! Then stop asking me for money.
)1 the BMI is a load of shit. I'm considered obese because I'm muscular. Try using body fat percentage instead.
2) corn and soybean oil are responsible for most fat people in this country. Thank those lobbies in the US for that.
3) my health only improved AFTER reincorporating sugar into my diet.
"corn and soybean" derivatives in virtually all supermarket fud-stuffs now, heavily subsidised by the government.
"corn and soybean" also used to fatten up the feed-lot "meat" before selling off to slaughter.
pretty easy to make the connection, particularly when you add in a shrinking budget for many folks, vs. "food stamp" cards used to prop up corporate fud-manufacturers. . .
Sugar in soda?? That would cut into profits
Actually the new trend in sodas is towards using real sugar instead of corn syrup. Pepsi, snapple and others are already doing it. You can look it up. No new laws were needed for this, it was consumer driven, the way the free market is supposed to work.
Pretty much everyone else outside the US already uses real sugar for pretty much everything. Look up sugar tariffs and corn subsidies. The govt is what's driving this. A while back when I was in the Middle East we used to yell at the cooks for buying American soda, and tell them to buy "hajji cokes" that had Arabic writing on it. Made with real sugar, tasted better. Any grocery store will have the real deal in the ethnic foods aisle next to the Mexican food. Look for the bottles labeled "hecho en Mexico". I almost never drink soda, but every now and then I'll get one of those.
But it's like you said first. Sugar is one of the most highly controlled import commodities in the US of A.
Because Sugar is a CONTROL substance, an addicitive thing. It leads most often to Candida, which most alcohol drinkers have in their in their systems, to one extent or another.
Candida, a bacteria that lives off sugar and keeps asking you for more.
Candia, Candyland, alcohol addiction (way too common everywhere now)....
This is why sugar is controlled and will be.
Take away sugar from the table, where will people find sweetness in their lives?
How is taxing sugar any different philosophically than taxing alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or negatively taxing, (i.e. subsidizing) religion?
Let's consider the ginormous profits made by companies who sell shit marketed as food. Let's consider the captured regulatory commissions, subsidies, mind bending advertisement (lies designed to create addicts starting at age 3) budgets. Let's consider that most of the profits derived from these socio-pathic schemes end up in the pockets of relatively few. Let's consider the costs of ER visits to all of us, but not the sociopaths ( because taxing rich corporations fairly would CRUSH the economy). Let's acknowledge that purposely kept ignorant people, the majority of which are working hard just to stay afloat, do not have the means or time to consider the consequences of their actions ( another purposeful result of 40 yrs of economic policy?).
Tax'em and end subsidies until the price of shit is at least equal to food. Use the taxes to inform and treat the obese-zoids. Subsidize food producers ( tax breaks) who act responsibly to consumers, workers and environment. Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds and their ilk produce absolutely nothing beneficial to humans or the planet. If I were 20 and uneducated, I would much rather have a job working in fields learning to produce sustainable, nutritious food than standing over a grease vat for 8 hrs.
I am aware of the pitfalls of handing government more money, but at least they will be fuckng up a good cause!
"Let's acknowledge that purposely kept ignorant people, the majority of which are working hard just to stay afloat, do not have the means or time to consider the consequences of their action"
It's so rare that it ends up being refreshing to see a statist show his true colors.
You admit that regulators are captured and that corporations own the tax and subsidy structure, yet demand that we turn to that very same captured government to implement additional taxes as part of that very same corporate-owned tax structure. Wat??
Why not just get the soda conglomerates to sign a letter of apology promising to produce healthy drinks (i.e. water) from here on out? Same end result...
All of this is a lot of hand-waving nonsense until a majority of Americans decide to stop drinking so much freaking soda. You can educate people yourself if you'd like, but you can't force them at the end of gun to do what you say, even if it's FOR-THEIR-OWN-GOODTM.
So then, leave as it is? What is this TRUE COLORS bullshit? I'm open to a better solution. You got one? Or conveniently pigeon holing people as a "whatever" excuses any acknowledgement of the shit state we are in or any reasonable discourse as to a solution. The idea I expressed might be ideal in an ideal world. I'm sure we can agree the world is far from ideal ( whatever that means), but leaving the situation as is until it descends into angry mob chaos is not going to be as "video game fun" as so many fantasy survivalists think it will be.
I'm not entirely unsympathetic to your sentiments. I get what you are saying. But perhaps one way to get people to cut back on shit consumption would be to make it more expensive. In capitalism, money is the only thing that has a voice that is taken seriously. Use money to modify behavior ( consumer and corporate) . It's been proven to work! The sole reason an economic system was ever dreamed up was to serve humanity.Like any system, when there are imbalances, it needs to be modified.
Look, I'm not stupid. I know this is a pipe dream. But flipping the tax burden onto those who knowingly peddle poison sounds good to me. A fellow can dream...
You may not consider yourself a statist, but you are one through and through. Your premise is that government power should be used to force what you consider to be healthier consumption habits. Likewise, you think government power should be used to tax certain companies at different rates based on the products they sell. You also don't seem to realize that corporations do not pay taxes, they include taxes in the cost of their products. You can make a Coke more expensive but you're not doing much to the Coca-Cola Company except killing demand. On that note, Harbanger pointed out earlier that soft drink producers are already meeting consumer demand for "healthier drinks" (I have no idea if they are actually healthy, I drink water.) Absent taxes and government force, consumers are already trending towards less HFCS and more real ingredients. Education is a slow process but once an idea sinks in, it tends to get legs quickly.
I think the only thing we agree on is that people should stop drinking so much damn soda and ultimately cut sugar consumption way, way back. OK, so what? As much as you bemoan the poor, ignorant masses struggling to get by, your real gripe is that you have to pay for their shitty choices. So what's your solution? It's not to address that very fundamental issue (cost-shifting), it's to ask for more government intervention to fix a problem it created through its own stupidity and hubris. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
I think government-protected monopolies, subsidies, and legalized cost-shifting in the health care industry should be ended immediately. I think health insurance itself is the problem. Insurance is to cover unexpected, catastrophic events. You don't whip out your car insurance card for an oil change do you? Of course not, and could you imagine how costly both car insurance and oil changes would be if you did? No, car insurance is for low-probability events, not maintenance I can expect to pay for as a car owner. I should be able to pay a reasonable amount for a blood draw and physical, no insurance required, no gouging, no hidden fees, no endless code bullshit. Here's my money, thanks for the service. My health insurance should be for unexpected, catastrophic events as well, and notice that specifically removes health problems caused by lifestyle choices.
I know it sucks to tell Aunt Edna she's going to have to figure out how to pay for her insulin all by herself, but until people are forced to make decisions and live with them, you and I are going to continue paying for the shitty choices of people we don't know.
I am all for letting people eat all the sugar they want but don't want to have to pay for their medical care once they get diabetes.
You're correct. Cost-shifting in the health care industry is THE problem here, not an excuse for government expansion. If people were forced to pay for their own choices, they might invest more time into making good choices. They aren't, so they don't, generally speaking.
perhaps amrkns need a checklist of exactly what "medical care" they want to channel "their taxes" towards.
new livers for alcoholics?
new hearts for "fatty meat" consumers?
breast enhancement for "porn stars"?
lasik eye surgery for porn video "consumers"?
stick a "choice box" on the ole tax forms, didn't they used to do that for "war support"?
choice! the great amrkn illusion!!
I like it! Watch porn? Buy porn bonds. Uncle Sam needs you!
CA. I generally like what you have to say and your sense of humor. But this is a multi-national problem. Not just Ameican'ts.
absolutely agree juangrande.
which is why it's heartening to see many nations BAN imported amrkn-fud.
thus keeping their peoples away from increasingly deadly derivatives conjured up in the science-labs by the white-coats.
I'm all for growin' yer own when you can, and bartering amongst your neighbours, makes for deeper community, local strength.
take care.
But but our "allies" love us don't they? The rest of the world is JUST JEALOUS!
Are you also "all for letting people eat all the" gmo fed animals that they want as long as you don't have to contribute to their consequential medical care?
American protein consumption, especially from factory produced animals, is strongly suspected to be a cause of the skyrocketing (and very expensive) kidney disease, heart disease and cancer in America.
How do you propose forcing the Big Mac and Burger King eaters to pay for their future medical care?
By not paying for it for them. (Was this a trick question...?)
hey there Chump.
I understand what you're posting, actions have consequences and folks are tired of shouldering the burden of other's "choices".
consider that each "nationstate" has been conducting little social experiments, with some expanding, some contracting along the way. no two petri-dish borders exactly alike.
amrka, for whatever reasons one chooses to believe, got the strong manufacturing grooming post WW2, and strong employment figures combined with contracts to "rebuild" the destruction wrought in wars/economic collapse. that, and heavy "investment" in a perpetual war economy to plant their boots globally and extract wealth from other nations, whilst poisoning/killing their humans. amrkns were "in the money!" because amrkns are exceptional, blessed, whatever meme one chooses to "explain" what was merely engineered. . .
and the "experiment" is coming to an end, even though peoples don't realise it yet. "amrkns" aren't exceptional when the money/resource rug gets yanked, any more than those other folks were "lesser" when the theft was happening.
so now, ill health, derivative "fudstuffs", dwindling jobs, rising costs, but still folks are breeding/consuming like it's the "good ole days" - and their children aren't healthy any more, nor are many of the parents. so the "money" to be made is in "ill-health maintenance" and most folks don't want to pay for other folks "choices", understandably.
at what point does culture accept responsibility for their choices, harsh responsibility? for their food/drink/drug/family choices in life? other "poorer" countries have been doing this all along, to varying degrees. at what point do amrkns acknowledge their true global status - and the true top-down hierarchy that exists in their tax-farm-state? at what point do other people tell parents, can't pay for health care for your kids? tough. can't pay for a new heart/liver/hip? tough. your child/spouse/relative in an accident? tough.
it WILL be "tough" going forward. I have no easy answers, none of us do. I too favour "personal responsibility" and I've made my own peace with my inevitable mortality. but I don't have children (intentionally), and my "loved ones" are on the same page as myself, we accept our "fates". . . and accept that we may just be tested, chosen to experience our beliefs.
no one gets outta here alive.
peace.
Amerikans don't apologize. They also NEVER admit responsibility.
America has bred hundreds of millions of proles to perform the duties of extremely low paid soldiers and workers for the wealthy Anglo and Jooish robber baron upper classes. Now, when those hundreds of millions are no longer needed, thanks to health problems due to poor feed from their herders and improvements in technology, they are disposable, left to die without food, shelter and medical care. The Waltons, Kochs and their ilk who profited from those serfs when they were healthy are not responsible now that they are no longer useful.
The Waltons, et al are probably working on ways to license pitchforks as we post.
we don't disagree.
this tax-farm-nationstate was operated under more "privileged" rules than most other tax-farms, and few have noticed they've been moved from the green grass fields to stand knee-deep in their own shit, whilst being fattened in their last days by derivative-fud-stuffs, injected with anti-biotics & vaccines, squeezed of their last "assets" before the knackers yard.
if one observes how other "nationstates" are being toppled globally, it's not hard to see some outcomes approaching. unless one believes some "exceptionalism" myths proffered with their feed-corn.
and don't get me started on those Waltons, heh.
So good to see you here and hear from you personally CA. We are in agreement for the most part, and I get what you're saying about a culture as a whole reaping its own just rewards for its behavior. From my perspective, I think the negation of personal responsibility is the largest contributing factor to the hateful actions "we" take as a country.
We do have a tough road ahead, no doubt. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a bad person for having already brought 2 children into what promises to be turmoil. The suffocating weight of that responsibility can be tough to bear.
Peace to you and yours likewise.
no second guessing now Chump - reality is what it is! and all choices going forward arise from present awareness, in my opinion. . .
merely acknowledging how the "past" shapes the "present" - not railing against it, nor seeking to apportion blame, but applying a mature awareness to the present, then actions following from that awareness - is all we can do.
acceptance of what is, in the present, from our current perspectives. it's a given that our perspectives shift over time, with lived experiences brings some greater understanding (for most, maybe not all?). no regrets in a mature mind, just acceptance, and the shouldering of responsibility for all choices made in the "future".
I hang with folks of all different ages - young folks & their parents - all of them "worth" knowing. . . just "teach your children well" as the old CSNY song goes, don't perpetuate cultural brainwashing to the extent you can. . . experiencing joy in simple things is a very deep path to model.
take care, and you will.
Lately when I've been overwhelmed I've found myself focusing on, as you say, what is, so this exchange has been incredibly timely. Thank you for your thoughts, you've put me in a good place at the moment.
I look forward to seeing you here again.
synchronicity, it's timely for me as well, a reminder to just chill and stay busy with productive efforts, no mental spinning. . .
we abide, dude.
a kind of postscript.
this is a very deep observation. "personal responsibility" is surrendered when one decides to be "led" - to elect/choose a leader to act on ones behalf, whether for protection or whatever.
and I realise that's the model evident for "humanity" - fictitious land borders to fight over/defend, including fictitious humans accepting their land-name-brands via "nationalities". as long as folks invade/steal from other folks, the protection racket will profit, peoples will believe that is "reality" - when in fact, it's only reality because people choose to participate in that history/story.
personal responsibility means one accepts the part they play in reality, and the consequences that inevitably follow. all of the consequences.
no leaders, no one led. if only, eh!
Wholly agreed. "If only."
Bingo.
Because there's a humongolgodly powerful corn lobby.
Fixed that for you.
agreed.
also thought I'd add, the "new sugar" being touted most likely won't be as "pure cane" as many expect. . .
MEDIA BLACKOUT: Activists set 40 Tons of GMO Sugar Beets ablaze in Oregoni would disagree.......corn syrup boys are the most powerful. are they talking "sugar" or "corn sugar". something tells me you just might find the corn boys behind the anti "sugar" campaign. nothing like getting your competition banned
Archer Daniels Midland aka ADM. They ship that corn syrup shit by the black railroad tanker car. They should have the skull and bones sign on it.
The "sugar" lobby in this case is the same as the ETHANOL LOBBY... The minions of King Corn.
The actual sugar lobby is also powerful, but more so at the State level in the handful of states that produce real sugar cane.
Tax that poison corn syrup. Oh wait...ADM owns Congress.
To combat obesity, why not tax the fluoride put in drinking water?
"Fluoride depresses the activity of the human thyroid gland and has been commonly used as an effective treatment for patients with overactive thyroids. Fluoride may depress the activity of the healthy thyroid, as well, resulting in an underactive thyroid, a common cause of obesity. More than 20 million people in the United States receive treatment for thyroid problems."
They did tax sugar, thats how the US ended up with HFCS in everything, elsewhere in the world they dont have that crap, they actually have sugar
Well, we better damned well tax something!
Said everyone in Washington DC.
Young bucks around here have no concept of 70+% marginal tax rates, but us old-heads remember. We'll all become more acquainted with it again in coming years. Maybe the rates don't rise much, but they'll tax everying in sight. Asset taxes and welath taxes will happen, too. They really don't have any choice at this point.
It's a good health tax and it's for the children.
"they'll tax everying in sight" -- Yep, precisely why the oligarchs always appear so poor.
However, I will contend that the reason why America's political class escaped the guillotine in the 70's and 80's is beacuse they could in fact raise rates as there was indeed much less debt. This is not the case now motherfuckers. Tick fucking tock.
"Since the era of 70% tax rates, the U.S. income tax system has become far more “progressive.” Congressional Budget Office estimates show that from 1979 to 2007 average income tax rates fell by 110% to minus 0.4% from 4.1% for the second-poorest quintile of taxpayers. Average tax rates fell by 56% for the middle quintile and 39% for the fourth, but only 8% at the top. Despite these massive tax cuts for the bottom 80%, overall federal revenues were the same 18.5% share of GDP in 2007 as they were in 1979 and individual tax revenues were nearly the same — 8.7% of GDP in 1979 versus 8.4% in 2007.
In short, reductions in top tax rates under Presidents Kennedy and Reagan, and reductions in capital gains tax rates under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, not only “paid for themselves” but also provided enough extra revenue to finance negative income taxes for the bottom 40% and record-low income taxes at middle incomes."
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-70-tax-rates-wont-work
FATCA is the preparation for the wealth tax. Of course, fiat-cojuring is also a tax. . .
Well it's mostly carbon call it a carbon tax
Sugar is carbon. Put a carbon tax on all foods. Put a carbon tax on anyone exhaling CO2.
All life is carbon-based. Tax life... and when it's dead, tax it again.
Tax High Fructose Corn Syrup
And this is the answer to why they don't "just tax sugar."
Taxing HFCS is tantamount to taxing all food, and stealing revenue from one of the major political donors (and corporate welfare recipients) in the country.
Hey I think the author is on to something. Make all processed foods with added sugars (including honey, corn syrups, etc.) taxable and disqualified from EBT purchase.
Watch all the food get reformulated and widespread improvements in health. Want sugar with out an extra tax? No problem, buy it seperately and add as much as you like. Just one extra little step, and puts gives the customer more control.
If someone's on EBT, I want them slow and lethargic so they can't wield a knife and threaten to steal my wallet.
"EBT" fud stamps are a subsidy to the corporate fud-industry, propping up their dwindling sales, and keeping "supermarkets" open, truckers truckin' and
the illusion of "prosperity" intact.
for now.
besides, crap poisonous food supports the pharma/medical industry, not to mention the insurers.
can't disrupt THAT huge earner. . .
Honey and "Processed" foods in the same sentence? Me no think so!
Why not tax air?
Red meat is not unhealthy.
I like my food raised in its own feces too.
Lol.
People will go to great lengths to prove their preferred way of eating is healthy.
Lemme guess, this POV is due to the recent bit in the news about how eating low fat diets did not protect against heart disease?
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/were-we-wrong-about-saturated-fat.aspx?...
pods
Thank you
Exactly right.
Modified Adkins - take in a little less high fat and add just a little complex carbohydrates. Remember that hunter tribes only had access to carbohydrates seasonally when the berries would be available. Otherwise they ate mostly protein
It takes skill and luck to catch protein every single day. I think they were mostly eating leaves, fruits and digging up roots.
Leftover bone marrow - high in fat and calories - did the trick. The stongest beasts would do most of the hunting and killing. Humans figured out how to use tools to get to the marrow.
And they died at 34. Fuck this Paleo fad diet! Eat vegetables. Organic if you can afford it. Eat locally raised beef and chicken. Eat pasta, rice and bread in moderation. Restrict processed shit food, but you don't need to eat like a caveman to achieve a healthy lifestyle.
They also lived at a population density of about one human per square mile, more or less depending on the specific environment.
Wrong, rice and roots for the last 5000 years. The hunter gatherer lived to the rip old age of 37 before somthing bad happed the prevented hunting and gathering.
Its about how much you eat not so much about what. Eat much less live much longer. If you want to be healthy you need to eat less much much much less. (the irony is not lost on me that im eating hollween candy as i type this.)
So you are agreeing with me and then contradicting what I wrote about?
Click the link, it has nothing to do with Atkins, Paleo, or any other diet fad that lets you eat how you want and pretend it is healthly.
You can eat as much complex carbohydrates as you want provided they come from whole food souces (not whole grains, whole foods).
Salad should be the main dish. A big ass salad, with some nut dressing to aid in the absorption of fat soluble nutrients found in the greens.
pods
Bigg-ass salads have been a primary staple in my diet for decades. Having said that, I may die of mercury poisoning due to my affinity for tuna.
Grass fed red meat is good stuff. Not necessarily true about most stuff sold at the grocery store.
Prefix 'red meat' with 'grass fed' for absolute certainty on whats not unhealthy.
whenever im at lunch i always notice that the fat people order diet cokes. and the people who order regular cokes are usually not...
I've cut out all the "diet" stuff, using only real sugar and lost almost 20lb.
Methinks that the body says feed me carbs and if we give it substitutes, we're only tricking our palate, not our entire metabolism.
So now I feed it sugar when it wants it
And I don't keep eating more and more. I actually eat less. And healthier.
20lbs is good.
rise in consumption of high-fructose corn syrup
Uh, maybe a chart with the consumption of beet sugar (or whatever was used on sodas before HFCS) would be needed for a true comparison and not fact cherry-picking...
40% of Americans alive today will be diabetic. 50% of American children born today will be diabetic.
About 90 million Americans today are either prediabetic or diabetic.
400 million in this world are diabetic
1000 million are prediabetic in this world
1 person dies every 6 seconds due to diabetes
Reduce your diabetes risk by 90% and cure prediabetes very easily in 5 minutes: http://diabetesrisk.net/
Then people will never die. Hooray!!!
It's good to have your friends on Zero Hedge live forever. Or at least not die an early horrible death to an easily preventable disease.
See. Todja there would be no food shortages.
Ya' kno', I'm coming to think that shit like Ebola, diabetes and the like are simply mother nature's way of eradicating the cancer known as humans from the planet.
Take for instance corrective lenses.
If all the poorly sighted could not be corrected, they walk off cliffs, get in accidents, etc.
And there'd be less people.
Natural Selection is a bitch
I say tax high fructose corn syrup and aspertame. Obesity seemed to grow as the use of those grew (just ignore McD's sales over the history)
They should tax salt. Definitely tax salt. US is a bankster colony, might as well be treated like one.
Note to GS: Appoint a viceroy to the US. The present political system just won't make the grade anymore.
Salt and stamps. Worked out great for the UK.
Taxing tea worked out great for UK in Boston!
Many "green" industries convert sugar to plastics, will they be "taxed" as well and at the same rate? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Stupid fucks.
Theyr'e scared of the Shade of Judge Dredd .
of course this is big gubbamant theft
here's how to fuck the blotus gubbamant back
stop spending - this drives deflation and slashes blotus gubbamant revenues overnight
of course blotus gubbamant will raise taxes MOAR, but if you stop spending, blotus gubbamant revenues continue declining
stopping consumer spending fucks the S&P500 companies too - and may tank the market nicely
not only is that fiber bar a candy bar, but the dietary fiber they add to those things isn't anywhere near as effective as naturally occuring fiber. empty calories empty fiber content. i understand that in Ireland they tax alcohol, and for that reason the guiness there is only about 3%. if they tax sugar the foodmakers will be less inclined to add sugar, now if they did the same thing with salt, maybe you could have a can of soup without getting a weeks worth of sodium.
Yep, most added fiber is inulin and a lot people can't tolerate it well; as in cue gas and diarrhea.
So... you think CHS realizes he that instead of presenting an argument in reductio ad absurdum fashion, this will only be used as a political mandate to tax everything?
The lesson here is, that in the incoherence that is the political world, every argument will be twisted in support of the state, regardless of it's absurdity.
Too bad we can't tax stupidity. Washington would supply us with an abundance of revenues.
Just make sure you don't give it to the homeless if you're in Ft Lauderdale:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/04/justice/florida-feeding-homeless-charg...
I work in film. Half the food supplied to crews every day is wasted. People aren't allowed to give any of it to the homeless. The reason behind it - potential lawsuits. People on set are covered by their union/insurance etc. An outsider isn't a part of the organization, so if an allergic eats a penut or yadda yadda yadda. You get the picture. It has more to do with the American lawsuit mentality than with anything else. No such problem in many European countries, but there they aren't as wasteful with their food either and film budgets are a lot more conservative.
Why stop at charging $0.10 for plastic bags (oops, paper only b/c plastic bags are banned) in the bay area? Why not tax the straws too? And the napkins too. And $0.25 for ketchup. And $0.25 for a water cup.
Fucking sorry faggots. Glad you motherfuckers got shitcanned last night.
Wait wait wait
Let me get this right
First, we SUBSIDIZE the sugar industry (Cane) and corn industry (HFCS) , putting in a price floor for the producers, and protect them from cheap sugar and HFCS from overseas
Then we TAX the sugar and HFCS that comes out of the industry, 'cause it's bad???
Think maybe we just should not subsidize, causing the price of sugar to rise, and therefore sugary stuff would be more expensive and therefore limit their purchase and use?
How about at least a simple warning label saying "The Surgern General has confirmed that eating HFCS will make you a fat ass"
WTF MAN GET ME OFF THIS RIDE!!!!
Why not tax salt? Or stamps? Both of those worked out great!
"If it bleeds... we can kill tax it!"
Last week HuffPo had a picture of a pregnant woman's tummy with State Owned across it and an article about abortion.
Let's sum up.
Pregant woman's tummy, State Owned: Dems pissed, Repubs happy.
Obese woman's tummy, State Owned: Dems happy, Repubs pissed.
There are two things this country needs desperately: a 7-cent nickel (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0K3QtU-iNM) and a tax on taxation. I predict that if the act of taxation were taxed, if the taxers had to pay a premium for levying taxes, why then we might see a new birth of freedom, etc. etc.
Sugar farmers (all 5 or 6 of them) are heavily subsidized by .gov; so technically, sugar is already taxed. Those who consume it and even those who don't are getting nailed on the front end. What should be taxed is the medical industry that is making money treating the symptoms of diabetes instead of telling lard-ass patients to stop eating crap.
Corny Syrup is in processed meats too.
Remember this?
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet
Taxman, The Beatles, 1966
Corporations profit selling easily consumed or prepared packaged food that is fatty, salty, sweet, or a combination of those.
For the past 100 years people have been progressively conditioned to be less self-sufficient and more reliant on consumption of packaged food.
We are close to the point where the youngest generation couldn't prepare and cook a meal to save their lives, not to mention growing crops or raising livestock.
Taxes or laws won't change things anymore than they have for booze, drugs, tobacco, or prostitution.
Monkey want banana.
Fellow ZHers, I am looking for good regular podcast sites.
I currently frequent corbettreport.com and tarpley.net (can barely stand that guy although he can be interesting) but I run regularly and need more podcasts. Any suggestions?
I can find lots of YouTube videos but those kill my bandwidth. I make an exception for Jim Willie, who is interviewed too infrequently, and go through a long convoluted process to transfer the youtube vid to my iphone/itunes.
Sorry for putting this question here. Didn't know where else to make such a request. Thanks for any insights.
@ Time for Titus have you tried here...
http://www.blogtalkradio.com
this is where I first started waking up, many good shows to choose from, used to listen to some everyday but now my dial-up connection won't let me,
download and playback works tho ;-) got the ZH link from one of the chat rooms yea!!
Why don't you just shut your pie hole!!!!
Stop giving these morons more ideas about how to 'tax' us?
Now get your bitch-ass into the kitchen and make me some pie!!!!
Soda is mostly corn syrup, not sugar...
I'm pretty sure this article was in response to Berkely CA passing this proposition last night, not proposing a new tax ....
Well if not sugar (which causes ill health) why tax alcohol and tobacco (just because they can cause ill-health). If you think Govts are consistent then scrap those pernicious taxes as well. Of course if you legalise all drugs then there's another bonanza of 'naughty' stuff to tax. So thats why Colorado ...
Basically, if they can get away with it they'll tax it.
It’s really not a ‘tax’ but more of a ‘fee’. Like drunk driver penalties aren’t classified as road taxes, but safety fees. How many times have we heard the drunk driver is caught, released and picked-up hours later on another drunk driving charge.
Whose best interest was met? Not ours, the drunk driver was still out there. Not the drunk, they were released from the station.
Instead of more taxes and regulation, eliminate health insurance. Move 'health' back to the private hands.
IF a person wants to glutton on soda and candy bars for 40 years, have at it. When that person’s feet rot and fall off from diabetes, well, ask relatives and friends to buy new hoofs.
The US should just tax cigarettes and alcohol too. Should make everyone healthier.
And tax rape and murder. We want to discourage those unhealthy behaviors, I think.
And Obola. Tax sick people.
There, fixed. You're welcome.
Taxes are really in fact theft; extortion.
Being that government is nothing more than a criminal syndicate of theft and violence, government can, and does, only accomplish the opposite of the stated goal.
Additionally, for the same criminality of theft and violence, government can only produce poverty, misery, death, and lies.
Therefore, the government is stealing more from the people undercover of "health," and will inevitably make more people unhealthy, and those already unhealthy, worse. Poverty, misery, death and lies will increase commensurately as well.
An American, not US subject.
"Government is a lie backed by violence that ends in violence backed by lies."
I for one have stopped consuming any foods or beverages that contain sugar or artificial sweeteners for nearly a year now. The difference in my well being is astounding, and anything with sugar or artificial sweeteners has a petroleum / nasty taste and after taste. Then a horrible headache. You try it. Look at everything YOU eat and drink. Then think:
Candida albicans!https://www.google.com/search?q=Candida+albicans&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&...
Sugar.
25% of the federal budget is spent on medicine: Medicaid, Medicare, etc. And the percentage constantly grows.
If the government pays for healthcare, it'll find ways to cut expenditures.
I expect it to raise gasoline taxes as well. In Amsterdam everybody rides a bicycle as gasoline is $8/gallon. People are skinny and healthy.
just be done with it....tax all food and kill food stamps. Then you will see some thin people. Or better yet...just let them kill themselves.
Just don't tax 'Tea' -- it could be 'Revolutionary'....
When you understand that the US doesn't make enough sugar to fill its' "needs", and instead uses HFCS rather than pay taxes on foreign-produced product, you quickly realize that sugar is in fact "taxed".
grandfather was type 2, father is type 2, 4 years ago I was diagnosed type 2.
I went on a zero carb diet for 12 months, lost 38 kg, exercised everyday, I'm now medically diabetic free, but control my diet.
I haven't had a soda drink in 4 years, don't eat pasta after midday, and don't have sugar added to food or drink.
SUGAR is white poison. I visited the U.S. a couple of times and was shocked at the crap people eat.
pancakes with sugar syrup for breakfast, 20 minute sugar rush then plummet.
Hope healthcare system has heaps of dollars!
Insulin isn't the same as sugar. Sugar is only one way to increase insulin levels. Thoranos? and Life Extention made blood work so cheap, insulin test should cost around $10? If not less.
Insulin raises nitric oxide and LDL if there's too much. The thymus gland has insulin receptors. Insulin also increases LDL.
Thyroid activity + binding of riboflavin kinase with riboflavin in the cells to make FAD and FMN naturally balances out insulin levels on it's own.
Riboflavin kinase is upregulated with the Vitamin D RECEPTOR. Which is upregulated with Vitamin B12 and lithocholic acid.
I noticed that my riboflavin supplements are better absorbed in my body when I consume a mixture of dextrose and potato starch (with lemon and water)- I only need a few teaspoons.
How? Mid and Short chained fatty acids increase insulin levels. Riboflavin enzyme in the cell FAD breaks down mid and short chained fatty acids to regulate insulin spikes.
What else breaks down mid chained fatty acids? LEPTIN? Could Zinc, riboflavin enzyme FAD be the upregulating factors for leptin? THe possibility IS there.
Thyroid only releases T3 through a feedback cycle from the liver. Iodotyrosine dehydrogenase in the liver requires an NADPH carrier to float on so it can break down the old T3.
If the old T3 isn't broken down in the liver, the thyroid senses the old T3 and refuses to release new T3 to stimulate the metabolism.
IF the old T3 is broken down in the liver, the thyroid will release fresh T3.
(The same thing happens with parathyroid feedback cycle, if it reads calcium it won't release calcium. If it does not see calcium in the blood, it will release calcium from the bones- along with magnesium, phosphate and zinc).
Metallothioneins without stress cofactors blocks MEST (cytokine- read up on mesenchymal stem cells that tells the body to make either adipose tissue or muscle/bone/cartiledge with ingested nutrients).
MEST causes very rapid weight gain when you consume a high fat diet. Metallothioneins are upregulated with zinc and even copper or cadmium.
Zinc then binds with metallothioneins to make Zn-MT in the liver when the body is stressed, it blocks TNF-alpha. TNF-alpha is the cytokine that blocks PPAR-alpha so it won't produce FGF-21. FGF-21 blocks IGF-1 response to growth hormone in the liver.
You'd NEVER believe what flushes the Zn-MT out of the body? VITAMIN C!!! You could add selenium to amplify the effects. Antioxidants do this.
IGF-1 helps the metabolism by protecting NADPH so the thyroid situation can continue.
Zinc enzymes result in IDE (insulin degrading enzyme) and is supposed to drop cortisol levels!
Unsaturated fats cannot create leptin as they don't cross the blood brain barrier. Saturated fats do. Unsaturated fats trigger ghrelin release, MUFAs are present in even anorexics.
Cysteine binds fats to be unsaturated mid chained fatty acids. Selenium (think garlic!) gets rid of the cysteine in the gut.
Riboflavin enzymes break the unsaturated fatty acids apart.
Riboflavin enzymes also convert into hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) wich with HYDROLYSIS (water?) breaks down triglycerides. If you're dehydrated, as in heat stroke - you're suffering from severe hypoglycemia because the HSL can't convert triglycerides to fuel without water.
Guess what raises triglyceride levels? HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!!!
The other bit that thyroid accomplishes is the bioavailability of carnitine (with B6, b12, SAMs and Lysine).
Again, not possible without thyroid activity.
Dude. I strongly warn against a high fat diet if your stressing your system out. IF you're not helping your body absorb good nutrients, watch your cholesterol levels! Be hella careful with this shit.
I told you WHAT was going on- you have to figure out how to deal with it and the good news is that there's more than one way to do it.
Wish you well.
"So here's the obvious question for proponents of sugary sodas: why tax only sodas? If sugar is the addictive culprit, then why not tax everything that has sugar as an ingredient?"
You answer the question in the next line.
"That list would include most of what many Americans consume on a daily basis:"
From the 1970s onwards fat was removed from manufactured food and replaced with sugar. If they came clean and admitted the harm this has done they'd need to change *everything*. They're fighting a rearguard action and offering up sugary drinks as a sacrifice.
Tax sperm donors, if we are going to pay 90% of our population to jerk off....makes sense.
You got to know how L.A. has so many fit, non-diobese people. IT's not the 20+ medical centers. IT's the availability of both healthy eateries and MADE FROM SCRATCH FRESH ethnic foods.
No-there's no fine or tax on"bad foods".
But because we have options and our vanity to consider- the options are very helpful.
You can be at Lyfe Kitchens, Sushi joint, Veggie Grill, Erowhons or you can choose the NY Pizza, or how about a donut shop? That's how it's supposed to be, SF and NYC can take some HUGE hints since the Angelinos in general ARE more fit than people in many other cities, ESPECIALLY SF.
For example, "fusion" in Los Angeles would be "kimchee tacos", "korean-chinese", "thai-Chinese", "jewish pizza" (damm that Jewish Kosher Pizza joint around La Brea by the Grove is so incredibly good, I recommend it): whereas "fusion" in the SF Yay area would consist of kitchen sink cookies (cookies with candy bars in it) or FRIED Vietnamese....
Not everyone is fit here- but fitness IS trending. And it looks good too.