Will fat tax on foods make you thinner?

1. 71

   nnmsposted 9 years ago

   Will fat tax on foods make you thinner?

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2. 63

   Alessio Ganciposted 9 years ago

   I don't think so: cigarettes cost much but people still buy them... why it can't be the same for junk foods? Fat tax will make these people even more poor, but they aren't ready to say "stop" to junk food.
   In addition, not many people have an overview of what a healthy life is, and gyms are not actively attended by everyone.

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3. 72

   dashingscorpioposted 9 years ago

   
   
   People will continue to buy what they love to eat.
   Maybe we should find ways to cut the price of "healthy food" to compete with so called junk food.
   In the U.S. one can go to COSTCO a warehouse grocer which has a small offering  of meals. A foot long hot dog and soda (free refills) is only $1.50 or they can buy a foot long hot dog, soda (free refills), a LARGE slice of pizza and a 12 oz cup of frozen yogurt for under $5.
   At the same location you can purchase a (small) Chicken Caesar Salad for about $4 (mostly lettuce) and it doesn't even come with a bottle of water! If someone is hungry they're likely to spend there money on whatever variety of food they can get that will fill them up. In all honesty the price of salads & vegetables are way too high!

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4. 81

   tamarawilhiteposted 9 years ago

   You can get fat eating too much of anything, even officially healthy foods.
   A fat tax would lead to similar smuggling of food the way cigarettes are smuggled into areas with high cigarette taxes.
   You'll see people taking steps around any rationing and portion limits, such as people switching to buying more 2 liter sodas when single serve sodas were taxed and limited in New York. Or there will simply be organized shopping rings to get around it like having your kids buy items in cash ahead of you so that you buy more without being restricted to X when Mom pays.
   There's no consensus on classes of food being bad on you, such as butter alternatively being good and bad. A fat tax therefore won't help - and you'll get outcries from people on Atkins or disagree with official consensus today that the food is bad. So it can't stand

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