{"id":2131,"date":"2010-05-19T10:54:58","date_gmt":"2010-05-19T14:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2010-05-19T10:54:58","modified_gmt":"2010-05-19T14:54:58","slug":"individual-choice-the-soda-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/05\/19\/individual-choice-the-soda-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Individual choice & the soda tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a revealing graph in today’s New York Times.\u00a0 It shows, essentially, how decades of subsidies for corn (and therefore, corn syrup) has made the least healthy food – soda – the cheapest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The article is about the soda tax, which is basically DOA in New York State right now, even though Albany sure could use some new revenue.<\/p>\n

The biggest argument you hear against the soda tax is this: why should the government tell me what to drink?\u00a0 It’s my personal decision.\u00a0 If I want to drink tons of soda, that’s my business.<\/p>\n

David Leonhardt points out<\/a> there’s a growing chorus of economists and health care professionals<\/a> concluding that’s not true.\u00a0 But they’re being drowned out by the lobbying efforts of the soda industry.<\/p>\n

Obesity has become a huge driver of spiraling health care costs that affect every one of us, both in our own premiums and in the taxes we pay for everyone’s Medicare, Medicaid, etc.<\/p>\n

In the case of soda, those costs come in the form of medical bills for diabetes<\/a>, heart disease and other side effects of obesity. We\u2019re all paying these bills, via Medicare<\/a>, Medicaid<\/a> and private insurance premiums. Obesity has become a significant cause<\/a> of our swelling<\/a> long-term budget deficit.<\/p>\n

And soda is a huge reason the country is so much more obese. The typical American consumes almost three times as many calories<\/a> from sugary drinks as in the late 1970s. This increase accounts for about half the total per-capita rise<\/a> in calorie consumption over the same period. Remember, many of these drinks have zero nutritional benefit \u2014 unlike meat, cheese or juice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We accept taxes on tobacco and alcohol to help pay for the social and economic cost of these drugs.\u00a0 Why not a drink that has no nutritional benefit that we’re all paying for in the doctor’s office?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a revealing graph in today’s New York Times.\u00a0 It shows, essentially, how decades of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}