If a group of Illinois food nannies including the Illinois Public Health Institute have their way, you might soon be paying a fat tax on those $1 Cokes at McDonald’s, not to mention your rum and Coke at Cafe Laguardia and pop-based cocktails at lounges all over the state. CBS 2 reports that the coalition wants to boost beverage taxes as a means of battling public obesity:
Illinois Public Health Institute CEO Elissa Bassler said, “Maybe changing the ways we use beverages can be a part of handling obesity.”
Just like high liquor taxes put an end to alcoholism.
What do you think? Would increased taxes on soda pop make you give up Coke and Green River and drink water instead? Or will you just have a beer?
As for me, you can take my Coca-Cola when you pry it from my cold, dead, fat hands.
I have around two cans of soft drink a month, mostly because I’ve lost a taste for it since I started No S. I resent that the same companies that make soft drinks and bottled water charge the same amount for both of them, even though one of them has caramel coloring and sugar and the other doesn’t. So it would make me feel less ripped off if the one with added ingredients were more expensive.
It’d be nice if such a tax could be dedicated to providing dental services for low income people but that’s not going to happen.
It should bother everyone that the nannies down at Chicago City Hall rammed through a 5-cent-per bottle tax on water. And get this, the tax is just on plain water. Result: 5 cents tax on a bottle of Evian, but not on Perrier — and not, of course, on soda. For anyone upset at the cost of water compared to that of soda pop, there’s an easy solution: Don’t buy water.
There you have it: laissez-faire capitalism and personal responsibility. We now return you to our regularly scheduled showing of “The Fountainhead.”
I gave up my diet Coke for Lent, and switched to iced tea (unsweet, as its called down South). If an appropriate tea is unavailable (mango black tea was fine, Tazo Black was nasty), it will be ice water, no sparkle. I’d rather “save” the calories for a dessert, preferably chocolate and over-the-top.