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Tuesday 26 July 2011
Tax Soda, Subsidize Vegetables

Rather than subsidizing the production of unhealthful foods, we should turn the tables and tax things like soda, French fries, doughnuts and hyperprocessed snacks. The resulting income should be earmarked for a program that encourages a sound diet for Americans by making healthy food more affordable and widely available.

The average American consumes 44.7 gallons of soft drinks annually. (Although that includes diet sodas, it does not include noncarbonated sweetened beverages, which add up to at least 17 gallons a person per year.) Sweetened drinks could be taxed at 2 cents per ounce, so a six-pack of Pepsi would cost $1.44 more than it does now. An equivalent tax on fries might be 50 cents per serving; a quarter extra for a doughnut. (We have experts who can figure out how “bad” a food should be to qualify, and what the rate should be; right now they’re busy calculating ethanol subsidies. Diet sodas would not be taxed.)

Simply put: taxes would reduce consumption of unhealthful foods and generate billions of dollars annually. That money could be used to subsidize the purchase of staple foods like seasonal greens, vegetables, whole grains, dried legumes and fruit.

54 notes

  1. i-sauntered-vaguely-downwards reblogged this from kravenlit and added:
    What is this about, honestly? Because this would seriously, seriously fuck over poor people who go through enough...
  2. violentopposites reblogged this from i-sauntered-vaguely-downwards
  3. magickal-autistic-cat reblogged this from lilahisthenight and added:
    ^I agree with you. I do agree that healthy food should be cheaper and more easily available though. The reason soda and...
  4. lilahisthenight reblogged this from navigatethestream and added:
    Great idea! Let’s tax poor people even more! Let’s tax the food that they can afford, that gives them an energy boost,...
  5. navigatethestream reblogged this from azspot and added:
    food for thought. reblogging to read later
  6. nategiven reblogged this from kyubino and added:
    It slays me that as someone who makes very little money, I have to eat crap. Nutrition that causes me to perform better...
  7. kyubino reblogged this from azspot
  8. dcgreenfreak reblogged this from ohhappydaaaze
  9. silas216 reblogged this from azspot
  10. ohhappydaaaze reblogged this from burntdaylight
  11. burntdaylight reblogged this from heathershipsterheaven
  12. heathershipsterheaven reblogged this from riseaboveittoloveitletitgo
  13. dorkus reblogged this from azspot
  14. heres-to-your-health reblogged this from azspot
  15. kjartanthemagnificent reblogged this from azspot
  16. kravenlit reblogged this from azspot and added:
    Excellent idea, and I totally agree and see the merits, but I fear the giant corporations behind most of the sweetened...
  17. etanswen reblogged this from azspot
  18. randomactsofchaos reblogged this from azspot
  19. hairtrending reblogged this from azspot
  20. riseaboveittoloveitletitgo reblogged this from azspot
  21. politicasian reblogged this from azspot and added:
    I agree with the concept, but quantifiers such as “serving size” and “per donut” should be avoided, otherwise we’ll have...
  22. azspot posted this

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