smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/paying-the-cost-of-fighting-obesity-20100110-m0n3.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_tax
Should we have a fat tax of some sort? And why/why not?
A couple of off the cuff pros/cons to kick it off:
Pro:
- Pigovian tax would pass on the healthcare costs to the individuals and they would make better decisions
- Revenue raising
- Improved health
Con:
- We must oppose the state/taxes in all instances
- Completely privatising healthcare would be a better measure
Those aren't cons, they're subjective examples of your hackish political views.
Exactly. Please, if you're going to float a debate like this. At least pretend to be balanced. Not blatantly subjective.
-The term "fat" is quite subjective sometimes.
Yeah, um, somehow I doubt they'd make a judgement on the level of taxing people are going to receive based on whether they reckon they're "fat" or not. There'd be medical criteria and tests. "Awww shit, she's pretty hefty, better tax her a bit."
Some skinny people like fatty foods as well and we shouldn't suffer.
This I do agree with. If I didn't have a super speedy metabolism I'd probs be fat.
1. Obviously opposed for clear libertarian/right wing reasons etc etc
2. A Fat tax would raise the cost of living for the poor.
3. Sure, it may seemingly incentivise making healthier food choices, but healthy food is already more expensive so it would only help to make healthy food cheaper compared to unhealthy food. And this may sound like a generalisation, but I'm willing to bet that at the same price, an overweight person would rather buy unhealthy food than healthy food, and even if healthy food was cheaper they would generally prefer the convenience of unhealthy food rather than going to the effort of making tasty healthy food.
4. Sure, the point could be made that overweight people cost huge amounts of money to the public health system, but this is a problem with our public health system, not a lack of "healthy regulation"
.
Funny, I've never seen you express care for the lives of the poor before.
Healthy food is not more expensive than unhealthy. That's complete and utter rubbish. I work in a supermarket, and by far the cheapest stuff is fruit. By far. And there are many other healthy foods that are no more expensive than unhealthy. Please don't make up shit like that.
And your last point there...are you serious? The expense of caring for fat people is the health system's fault? That's like saying cancer isn't the problem, the body is. There is no fast way to reduce the cost of healthcare for obesity, apart from stopping the actual obesity. What a stupid point.
Just from personal experience, most poor people are pretty stupid.
If you cranked up the price of junk food they'd just pay less of their bills than they already do.
Ah, here we have a very fair judgement. "This tax won't work because poor people are stupid."
It is generally the poor who eat unhealthily because of poor education and income and what not. A tax wouldn't stop them from purchasing fatty food, it would just demand higher allocations of income to groceries (unhealthy food) and take away from other expenses, like childcare, healthcare, bills, petrol etc. Increase in cost of cigarettes has shown this.
It's simple...stop being so god damn lazy, put the donut down, get off the lounge and start exercising!
I don't think the fact that a higher price on unhealthy foods would discourage people buying them is up for debate here. It would.
You can only compare smoking and obesity so far. Smoking is significantly more addictive than fatty foods. People find it easier to diet than quit smoking, so a tax would merely encourage this even further.
Yes, because telling people about the damage obesity does and what not is working so, so, so well right now! You're right, so simple!
I don't think there should be a fat tax. Living in a lower socio economic there are heaps of "fat" people in comparison to the city area .theses so called fat people can't afford to pay more taxes. Some can barely afford to pay off there shopping or even find a job
You have stumbled across the exact point of the entire tax idea. If they don't buy the unhealthy foods, they save money. The only way they are paying more is if they maintain the unhealthy ways.
Paying taxes won't stop people from getting more fat .education is the key
Yes, it would help.
And I'm fairly sure most people, even the "dumb poor" know the affects of obesity. Everyone is reasonably educated on the matter. In this way it's much like smoking. Yet a huge amount of Australians are still obese. Education = incomplete key.
Having said all that, I wouldn't really support the tax. I'm not 100% against it though either.
But it's not gonna happen, like people have said, based on the potential unpopularity of the idea.
And there would be so many interest and lobby groups hell bent on stopping this. The might of almost the entire food industry and probably other industries as well.
And it is true that putting blanket taxes on many fatty/unhealthy foods just wouldn't work. So many variables in both the food type and consumer aspects.
But it would be nice, as I said I work at a supermarket, and I used to work at an ice cream shop. And it reaches the point where I'm so disgusted I just wanna yell at these people and ban them from the shop.
Something needs to be done.
EDIT: An effective, although slightly ruthless solution would be to stop all public funding of treatment for obesity and direct side effects of obesity. This wouldn't affect any one but the obese person, apart from saving everyone else from paying for their treatment. And the obese people can hardly complain about having to pay for their self-induced ill-health and disgusting physical state.
