Posted on 07/15/2002 2:50:10 PM PDT by blam
Think-tank calls for unhealthy food tax
By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent
(Filed: 15/07/2002)
Unhealthy food should be taxed, a Left-wing think-tank will argue this week.
Demos, which has close links with the Government, will urge ministers to consider imposing a levy on "fatty, highly processed and fast foods" in order to encourage people to eat more healthily.
In a report that covers "food poverty", Demos will point out that poor diet is to blame for health problems such as obesity and that this is a particular problem for low-income families, who are proportionally more likely to eat food with a high fat and sugar content.
The issue is contentious because food is exempt from value added tax and politicians in the past have been reluctant to consider putting a tax on such an essential commodity.
A Demos spokesman said: "We are saying there should be some disincentive mechanism to tackle the issue of low cost, high fat, low nutrition food, which is bought disproportionally by low income people. But it has got to be done in a way that penalises the manufacturers, not the consumers."
The spokesman added: "It is vitally important that it does not just further penalise people who are already being penalised because they are forced into buying low nutrition food."
The report, Inconvenience Food, will argue that any money raised from the tax should be used to encourage healthier eating habits. But it will not explain in detail how any of this could work.
Demos will launch its report in the Commons on Wednesday.
Some people can't take a dump without bringing class-envy into the picture.
Yeh, right, just like our state lotteries were to pay for public schools, the Socialial Security was suppose to be used for Social security, and the cigarett tax was to aid smoking cessation.
Sure, they'll use it to help people eat right -- NOT!
This is just another "share the wealth" Socialist sceem to deny the laborer his due.
Ask the smokers, to paraphrase Orwell "some choices are more equal than others"
Only a lifelong liberal would not realize where the manufacturers get their money. Taxing something that poor people buy in disproportionate amounts means that prices go up correspongingly. I thought these morons were against "disparate impact..."
The reason to oppose this is not that the nanny state needs to get it's nose out of our plate, but rather that the growing omnipresent State needs to have it's revenues controlled.
I'd go light on the celery.
Of course if restrictions were placed on the types of food that can be procured with food stamps, the same people calling for a tax on junk food would be whingeing about how it is not our right to tell poor people what kinds of food they can and cannot buy with food stamps!
Doubtful. The sheeple of America have already fallen into the "us versus them" games the left plays with taxes, pitting one class against a smaller target class. Just look at the smokers. They've already gotten their tenticles firmly entrenched with nary a peep from this outraged population you refer to. Just look at what they take out of your paycheck already. And they think up such pretty names other then the word "tax" in them.
Buy gas for your car. Taxed.
Make a phone call. Taxed. Don't make a phone call, and you're still taxed.
Purchase an item at a department store. Taxed.
Stay at a hotel. Taxed.
Buy a house. Taxed. Refuse to pay and the government takes your house away even though you've paid for it.
Buy a car. Taxed.
Take a drink of water or flush the toilet. Taxed.
Go see a movie. Taxed.
Buy McDonalds and sit inside to eat it. Taxed.
Buy some smokes. Taxed.
And the list goes on and on. And you seem to think that one more tax is going to cause some sort of 'revolution' against Congress? Heck they've been robbing Social Security for decades and no one has said a word. No, this tax will be imposed on the people of this country due to the fact American's have turned into a bunch of political morons over the past few decades, wanting their decisions spoonfed to them in 30 second sound bites.
I'm a classic mesomorph. I'm five feet one inch tall, built like an east german power lifter, and I can bench press 85 lbs (okay, okay...in my defense, it IS more than half my weight, so perspective is key here...) I spend more time in the gym than anyone I know, my bp is 110/50, and my resting pulse rate is 52. Could I stand to lose a few pounds--sure, if I want those really cool veins in my arms. I live across the street from a Wendy's, and my idea of a good, balanced lunch is their single combo with cheese and extra pickles.
If any of those limp-wristed girly men think tankers want a fight on their hands, they picked the wrong she-wolf to taunt. It'll be akin to wrestling a smoked pig-ear from a teething rottweiller pup. They tax my combo with cheese, I'll put a kink in their tofu-eating elitist fire hoses, knowhuttamsayinvern? I'll frigging thumb wrestle 'em to death...
They Can Tax my Single with Cheese when they pry it From My Cold Greasy Hands,
RepoGirl, bane to liberals, lover of Wendy's combos and Biggie Teas...
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