soda pop tax

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in california the legislature is soon going to vote on whether to levy a four cents per can tax on non-diet soda and use the 500 million dollars it raises to allegedly 'fight' obesity though i am not sure how giving half to schools that do not allow soft drinks on campus is gonna do that. i can already see the midnight runs across the border to get some black market RC cola. what will they tax next? potato chips seems the most obvious target. or perhaps video games for their encouragement of slothful behaviour. social engineering-classic or dud?

― keith, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

which is cool, as long as they tax diet soda equally for cancear/ms/birth deformity treatments...fucking lobby groups...better to be fully fat than live on yr diet knees.

― Queen G, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

An aside - Is there any iron-clad proof out there that diet pops will give you brain tumours and three headed babies and all that? I keep hearing these 'rumours' but never see the proof - not denying, it might well be out there - I'd just like to know more. Anyone?

― Kim, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Diet sodas in the US mostly use "Nutrasweet", which is actually not a sugar, it's a peptide--it's what happens when you bond together the amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid (hence the name "aspartame", and the warnings for those afflicted with PKU.) Now, a tiny amount of methanol (wood alcohol, paint thinner) is formed as a side product, but it's in such low levels that there is apparently no harm done to humans.

Diet soda is horrible stuff. Marginally better is "Light cola", like "Coca-cola light", which I've found in Europe but not here. It's also 0 calories, but it uses a different nonnutritive sweetener that I don't think has been approved by the FDA for widespread use here in the US yet.

i think California will be fine, as long as they don't start charging a nutty "television tax" like the one those crazy Brits have to pay to finance the BBC.

― geeta, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Here's another thing California did--you've got to hand it to them. About a year ago, Berkeley's Board of Education voted unanimously to feed GMO-free organic lunches to all their public school students, and they've "integrated whole-food principles and organic gardening into their curriculum." (Will pot-smoking also be integrated into the curriculum? I'm jealous!) I went to public school on the East Coast when ketchup was still considered a vegetable. Those crazy Californians.

― geeta, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hm...this legislature obviously hasn't been to my school then. Most of the girls are near anorexic. Yes, this is an exaggeration. But I would say easily that 60% of them are underweight or normal weight. There are only a handful of clinically obese people at my school, counting guys and girls..and really, they seem happy with themselves.

I am not really into social engineering, but sometimes it does need to be done. This is extremely hypocritical and judgemental...but I think some of the things that the government tries to pull are too much. We care too much about our images in the US. If someone is "fat" or is "undesirable" because some fashion magazine says so, that doesn't make it right. If it infringes their health but they are happy with themselves, then I say they should live out their happy lives the way they want to. I don't stop anyone from doing something they love to do. Now of course, this may have exceptions, like homocides or something. But in the usual case, they are small things, and really don't make much difference to me other than that person is happier because they are doing it. There.

Bah, I play computer games and I'm not slothful at all. Heh, that word is great, by the way. But anyway, I do exercise and watch the ole food consumption. I think I'm on the bad side of societal influence though, as most of the people around me seem to be. This is no good. Then again I am not sure I fit that many stereotypes...

Anycase, that four cents on the non-diet soda is ridiculous. Do they really think Americans are getting fat off of soda? Pah! Yeah right! There are tons of other things that contribute more to this. But then again, I promote happiness even if obesity is in the case, so I can't agree with it at all. Just not right to deny someone of something they like because other people are not viewed as good in this society. No good can come of this.

― kimera, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

in an old encyclopaedia britannica my mum and dad have (the supplementary issue pub. c.1930 i think) there's a big long essay on the health implications of prohibition (still in full swing). Basically all indicators are good: people were on the whole less unwell. It doesn't deal with the crime issue at all, or look at that sector of US society which WAS drowning in illicit bathtub gin.

maybe all junk food should carry the banner LIVE FAT DIE YOUNG! Then you could work out the cool choice on yr own. Social engineering is kind of what schools are FOR, isn't it?

― mark s, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

there is a 12 page article onhow much it fucks you up - even flies won't touch the shit becasue it's posionous - in disinformation's book - you are being lied to...www.disinfo.com

― Queen G, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark s: that idea rules! I think they need parental advisory labels on all junk food too. Saturated fat is the new expletive. And I think I would buy more video games if they said "Proven to cause cancer in laboratory animals" on the side. Take that, social mind-control experiment california hippie-fascists!

― geeta, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you eat too much of anything you can get fat, so let's just up all food taxes.

― Maria, Sunday, 3 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eight years pass...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought federal permission on Wednesday to bar New York City’s 1.7 million recipients of food stamps from using them to buy soda or other sugared drinks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/nyregion/07stamps.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Hope this happens, nationwide.

― In "Bob" There Is No East or West (WmC), Thursday, 7 October 2010 13:54 (fifteen years ago)

two years pass...

Knowles is renting her image to a product that may one day be ranked with cigarettes as a killer we were too slow to rein in.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/why-do-stars-think-its-o-k-to-sell-soda/?hp

― buzza, Sunday, 6 January 2013 22:07 (thirteen years ago)

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