I think your comment may have finally changed my views on the subject matter at hand. We should eliminate the taxes on cigarettes, and remove the red tape barring the simple pleasure from humans just because they haven't completed enough revolutions around Sol yet.
In fact, a truly meritocratic society would remove any such barriers. What difference does it make to have a 16 year old pilot a 2 ton general-purpose land vehicle vs an 18 year old? Shouldn't we just give them both a test whenever they personally choose to exercise that freedom, or, better yet, allow our citizens to use their personal property freely at any age so long as they are not intentionally harming others? Surely being able to acquire the down payment for a 2010 Toyota Corolla is the only mark of skill that matters to a thrifty and entrepreneurial society?
And it would be wrong of me with all this talk of individuals to not speak of my favorite Citizens United—NGOs! If adding so much sugar to a can of coke that phosphoric acid is required as an additive (to suppress the natural gag reflex) to increase market penetration 3% in the 4th quarter, then wouldn't the board at such a NGO have an obligation to their shareholders to deliver that growth?
Especially given that children and adolescents become lifelong customers, wouldn't such a board in fact have a fiduciary responsibility to target such demographics broadly with ever-sweeter processed foodstuffs and beverages? It's not the board's fault humans under the age of 25 generally don't have a fully developed pre-frontal cortex that could resist extraneous activations of the ventral tegmental area. It's just good business sense—if not us then someone else would clearly profit.
Or maybe we could tax the externalities, dunno. It seems your argument is no government could capture every single externality at any one given point in time and thus the effort is moot. We should just pick up the tab on our strained healthcare systems and add more motorized shopping carts at Walmart, and heck maybe we'll even get those cool floating chairs from Wall-E if Buy N Large can finally circumvent silly legalisms and deliver to the American public a sugar so concentrated you can skin-pop it.
Most of the differences in what you write is the "externalities" affect others.
Yes the "burden on healthcare" is framed as an externality too, but that's after one has accepted the collectivism of health. The problem with that is where does it end? How can you argue for a sugar tax but also argue against a skiing tax to dissuade people from partaking in that dangerous activity? On the other hand I can say why sugar drinks should not be taxed but people should have to get a license to drive on government roads without being inconsistent.
Sugar beverages isn't the only thing that causes food addiction, obesity, or diabetes either mind you. Why not get down to the brass tacks of it and implement calorie cards for people and tax or ban over-eating? And tax people by their body weight too.
Your argument would be more convincing if sugar tax had not already been successfully implemented in my country. We have an obesity problem, not a skiing problem. And a lot of people were unknowingly intaking hundreds of empty calories from soda for basically no reason.
> Your argument would be more convincing if sugar tax had not already been successfully implemented in my country.
What's your definition of success? I never argued a sugar tax could not reduce consumption of sugar if that is what it is. Just like an obesity tax could incentivize people to lose weight.
> We have an obesity problem,
Did your sugar tax fix the obesity problem?
> not a skiing problem.
Skiing is a statistically dangerous recreation and causes costly injury and death, healthcare system would be better off without it, so why not strive to also eliminate it? I didn't say it's the same magnitude as obesity but multiple problems can be addressed at once.
> And a lot of people were unknowingly intaking hundreds of empty calories from soda for basically no reason.
You must tell me what country this is which does not have the most basic food labeling standards yet has made significant progress in their obesity problem!
In fact, a truly meritocratic society would remove any such barriers. What difference does it make to have a 16 year old pilot a 2 ton general-purpose land vehicle vs an 18 year old? Shouldn't we just give them both a test whenever they personally choose to exercise that freedom, or, better yet, allow our citizens to use their personal property freely at any age so long as they are not intentionally harming others? Surely being able to acquire the down payment for a 2010 Toyota Corolla is the only mark of skill that matters to a thrifty and entrepreneurial society?
And it would be wrong of me with all this talk of individuals to not speak of my favorite Citizens United—NGOs! If adding so much sugar to a can of coke that phosphoric acid is required as an additive (to suppress the natural gag reflex) to increase market penetration 3% in the 4th quarter, then wouldn't the board at such a NGO have an obligation to their shareholders to deliver that growth?
Especially given that children and adolescents become lifelong customers, wouldn't such a board in fact have a fiduciary responsibility to target such demographics broadly with ever-sweeter processed foodstuffs and beverages? It's not the board's fault humans under the age of 25 generally don't have a fully developed pre-frontal cortex that could resist extraneous activations of the ventral tegmental area. It's just good business sense—if not us then someone else would clearly profit.
Or maybe we could tax the externalities, dunno. It seems your argument is no government could capture every single externality at any one given point in time and thus the effort is moot. We should just pick up the tab on our strained healthcare systems and add more motorized shopping carts at Walmart, and heck maybe we'll even get those cool floating chairs from Wall-E if Buy N Large can finally circumvent silly legalisms and deliver to the American public a sugar so concentrated you can skin-pop it.