In the last few decades there is no doubt that the majority of the world has started to face an epidemic of weight loss. Especially in western countries, the average weight and the amount of obese children an adults has skyrocketed. While in 1960 the average percent of obese adults age 20-70 was around 11%, today it sits at around 35%. There are many reasons for this rise in obesity, most notably the easy access of cheap and high calorie food. With costs of healthcare and disease among this new obese demographic getting higher and higher, governments are proposing plans to combat this by essentially creating what is being called a “Fat tax”.
In the US, states like New York have already started heavier taxes on drinks like soda, which provides zero nutritional value. The same way the government has curbed smoking in the past, they are now trying to implement with obesity, but the reality is any food, if consumed enough is going to make you obese. You would essentially have to tax all food much higher, which would cause those who can barely afford to buy food in the first place, starve. Taxing foods with little nutrition might be a little bit of a solution, but in reality it will only cause people from getting obese faster. The root of the problem lies elsewhere.
Many people who are truly obese have grown to that size not because they love food, but because they build a mental attachment to food like a drug. They consume it to the point where it makes them sick, especially in times of depression. If you meet someone who is 500 pounds, 9/10 times there is a problem much deeper than them just loving the taste of food. A fat tax really would have little effect on these people. They will most likely just pay the tax anyway, similar to people who have been smoking for 30 years. The reality of a fat tax, is it would really just help the next generation the most.
A second problem is nutrition is not taught enough in schools and many people are ignorant about how the human body works. While there are much more complex issues and many factors that will cause people’s bodies to consume more or less calories, the basic math for losing weight will always be, eat less calories than your body burns. This is knowledge that I know in my public school is completely avoided until we were in high school, at which point it was too late for many people to learn. Education many times would be more beneficial than a tax to begin with.
So finally I want to talk about the legality of such a tax and the potential breech on our ability to choose freely. I would imagine that the government would be able to institute a tax like a fat tax according to the constitution, but it would bring a large amount of backlash. We have a precedent set with alcohol and tobacco so in reality if implemented, it would most likely stick. However there are some countries. Mostly socialist that are proposing to flat out fine obese people more money a year for the eventual health costs they will incur. I believe this is most likely a breach of human rights.
Socialist systems need to account for people that will spend more in their lifetimes on healthcare than others. They need to find other ways to lower the weight of these people than flat out taxes. They could do this by providing incentives, free nutritional services, ect. These services would most likely save their governments money in the long term. In the United States though , where healthcare is paid for by the individual , not the government, I believe there is far less the government should be able to do. People ultimately should reserve the right to destroy their bodies if they want to and the government shouldn’t have an opinion as long as they aren’t paying. Overall I think there is a large split of opinions on this matter, but I expect governments to take more action in the future as the epidemic is predicted to only get worse.
Thanks to @Elyaque for the badges
"In the US, states like New York have already started heavier taxes on drinks like soda, which provides zero nutritional value."
The one in Philly really seems to have backfired. They ran off the Coke and Pepsi jobs right away, and since it also applies to flavored water, some products like Propel Flavored Water saw price increases of around two-thirds after tax.
The only real solution here is politically unpalatable and would involve neither subsidizing nor assisting in the resolution of the "consequences" of individual obesity. I suspect, at least US, politicians will instead take the increasingly regressive route of taxes and prohibition.
You are going to love this. So what does the fat tax really do though? It sounds like it is a way to make people not want to buy these things right?and that normal rational people will stop?
Just like Cigs and Alcohol?
Sugar addiction is a real yhing and many people have it. We are also addicted to caeffeine as it is an actual mild stimulant drug.
So putting a tax on "fat foods" hurts the addicts who can't quit the food. It also hurts a lot of poorer people themost because in general poor people eat low quality(fatty and sugary) unhealthy food because it is cheap.
So what is really happening when a fat tax goes through? It brings in more tax revenue from poorer to middle class people. It is an appearance of solving a problem, but in reality is a way to get gaurnteed money, becuase poor - middle class people can't buy organic cage free eggs (4.99 for a dozen), they can buy the caged and GMO laden eggs for 79 cents for a dozen. Same with vegatables and other healthy things, it costs double triple or more.
The actual problem is the food manufacturers are allowed to load products with junk. They need to go after tem. A fat tax on me buying mdonalds just makes me pay more while mcdonalds still gets their sale and the manufacturers of garbage food still continue on as normal.
It needs to be illegal to serve food that has more than a certain amount of salt or sugar or preservatives per serving. Drinking one 12oz can of soda has enough sugar for an entire day's worth of your daily value, everyone is getting diabeteres and overweight due to too much salt and fat in everything.
We need education, but the government is paid by lobbyists for food corporations to make it so we are un-educated on what we eat.
Will take decades or more to fix this problem and a fat tax just hurts the average person while letting the mega corps do what they want.
I agree with a lot of this, too, but have an even darker view of the systemic deception. The processed food industry is pretty huge, but big pharma is where the real money's at. In the US system, healthy eating will likely never be supported, because feeding the nutritionally under-educated massive quantities of salt and sugar provides rafts of diabetic and heart-diseased customers in need of a lifetime of downward spiral pharmaceutical regimens.
I agree with a lot of what you said. But, I also think people have the right to make unhealthy decisions if they choose, we just need to minimize the negative externalities of that for others.
Very perceptive to note that many people use food as a substitute for other things that are missing in their life, such as relationships, a sense of accomplishment/purpose, etc.
As Fraiser Crane once asked a caller who was struggling with food issues, "What part of you is not being fed?"
However, there is an aspect that was not mentioned - which is high fructose corn syrup, added to many processed food products. The is a direct parallel between the use HFC and obesity rates. Here's a graph from Diabetes Daily :
Right. That stuff is in soooo many products. A little won't kill you, but it's not something that occurs in nature and it's just so hard to avoid.
a fat tax would not stop people overweight to quit eating their favorite meals, same with the rise in cigarette prices caused nobody to quit, extra taxes on unhealthy items are an excuse for liberal to bring in more money to the government
Not true based on facts. It has been shown that you can raise the taxes on cigarettes to the point that you have a significant impact on usage. The test case is in Canada. Interestingly a socialist place. So-called "free healthcare for all". They justify the taxes due to the future higher healthcare costs for people that won't give up smoking tobacco. It is all a self-consistent philosophy and implementation of the philosophy.
They tried it in New York. It didn't do crap. Same as the drug war. The reality is politicians don't actually want to feed people healthier food. They just want to think of new ways to tax the poor.
Sad but true :(
Wish I learned about health and nutrition in grade school. Would have been more valuable to me than anything other than learning how to read and write.
People are not forced to buy unhealthy food, its the marketing that makes them irresistible. Although its healthier to cook at home, most times parents do nt have the time to cook so this is their quick fix. Even if a tax was given to these fast food restaurants, they would only find a way to shift the cost back on the customers.
It is a difficult dilema! I am from the UK and the issue is the same but there are slightly different considerations. Health care in the main is centralised and provided free of charge from taxation. It is considered acceptable to ban out right Narcotics (in the main) and heavily tax tobacco and alcohol. There has been talk of a sugar tax that is being pushed forward:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38212608
This is already having a positive effect as companies reduce the amount of sugar in their products.
I agree with the right to choose as an individual, but it gets complicated when your right to choose impacts on the amount of tax I have to pay!
In real life, calories would be expensive. The difficulty of obtaining them is what keeps us trim and healthy.
Too much wealth is toxic for us. Easy life kills us.
Stop subsidizing farmers to produce and thus drive the cost of food into the ground. Food should be more expensive. Why pay farmers in order to get cheap food and then try to tax the food to make it more expensive again? WTF?
100% tax should be lifted on unhealthy foods and subsidised to healthy foods.
I spend on average $200 Australian on food weekly to eat a very healthy diet. Compared to the fat guy down the road getting $3 pizzas daily and causing tax payers to fund his health bills!
I honestly think the only reason they are even considering a "fat tax" is because they have lost so much tax revenue collected from tobacco. The government doesn't care about anyone's health. It's all about the tax revenue. Smokers were an easy target, everyone dislikes them. This tax may have a more difficult time.
Case in point. The past several years, the government has been hammering auto manufacturers about getting better mileage from their vehicles. Now that newer vehicles get much, much better fuel mileage. What does that mean? Less gas taxes collected. Now we hear about taxing vehicle by the mile driven. It's always only about the money with these clowns.
Very thought provoking post as always @calaber24p. I think a fat tax would be insult to injury simply because the primary reasons for the growth of obesity are the same as the reasons for the rise in cancer, heart-disease, autism, auto-immune disorders, diabetes and most modern day diseases: refined food, sugar and genetically modified foods. There is a direct correlation to the growth of obesity with the increased sugar lobby and the gmo lobby and the government here in the US approves these foods and is heavily influenced by these lobbies. The insult to injury I'm speaking of is because people are being manipulated by the American Heart Assn and Monsanto - to name a few - into thinking that these foods are safe when they are the reason for all of their health issues. So to have these foods pushed upon people and then to tax them for the result is outrageous and completely immoral. Just take the report last week about vegetable oil being healthier than coconut oil which was formulated by former PR rep for Kentucky Fried Chicken. This has since been proven to be a blatant manipulation of the public for profit but not publicized through mainstream media, so those not in the know are still thinking that gmo corn oil is healthy! Guess this subject brings out the rant in me....it's a despicable state of affairs!
They already have about 20 taxes on them, maybe even more so 1 more won't hurt. Thanks for sharing.
That's true mate, making a healthy choice in nutrition is most difficult. I have been through he same phase. But by educating myself, I'm in a better condition now. The real solution is here educating people. Even if you increase the tax on these stuff, people will look for alternatives.
Check my blog @rahul516. I write fitness articles. Hope you'll like it.
Cheers :)
I think eating well is easier than working out. You don't have to leave the house to do it :)
That choice differs from person to person though!! For someone like me, hitting gym is much easier than making food choices.
Fair point and in my experience it's food choices. Looks like maybe we should collaborate on and article to offer up tips on how to do both 🤔. 😉
The founding fathers of the United States of America went to war over a 2-3% tax so no... taxes just shouldn't be a thing altogether.
nice post ,,, you have good blog , Good luck. Comrade
"Fat" tax!? wow I guess if it does pass we should do an ICO for Fat coin lol. No seriously the real answer would be to set a healthy standard of quality control on the meat and produce that fast foods are allowed to use. Starting with farms, then shipping companies who inject the produce and meats to "so call" preserve the food until it reaches the store. Think about Crypto , we could fund that job and hire people to do it with integrity using bitcoin or "Fatcoin" I'm just saying..
Wow, what a question and what a post! The fact that the government thinks it has the right to make these decisions for us shocks me but I also see the need for helping educate people about nutrition. I just think there are better ways they could accomplish it then taxing everyone. You've made some great points here @calaber24p. Thanks for helping get us all thinking. Steem on!
History has shown that restricting access to something via the law doesn't really reduce consumption of the thing... The fat tax isn't as bad as outright prohibition, but it has similar ideas behind it.
Wrong. Taxes on tobacco can reduce usage. Proven in many locations.
If it is OK to tax fat, does that make it OK to tax stupid?
That would bring in a huge amount of tax revenue.
Undeniable
No to "Fat Tax" maybe yes to a flat income tax. The federal and state governments need to get out of the business of regulating our lifestyles. It's our decision on how we heed warnings about smoking, sugar, or saturated fat. 2 things always certain in life - death and taxes. So here's to a limited government so that we may all enjoy our lives in a responsible way. Cheers!
nice post, good information
Fat tax? Why? Let people stuff their faces if they want to. Freedom to be fat is in the constitution right under the lard stains on page 3.
But most people don´t want to get fat, they are just too stupid to realize they get fat from constantly driking soda instead of water. They didn´t learn it in school. It is the food and beverage industry who should get fined for offering junk food and hypersugar drinks.
True. Perhaps the parents of the fat people should be fined for not teaching their kids about staying away high calorie foods and drinks? Really taxing producers of those goods is not way to go. What will the goverment do with this new fat tax money? Buy treadmills for making those fat people thin again?
good info
The fact that this has even become a debate tells us how bad things have really gotten. No. just no! It's not alright. This is no place for the government. Let's call it what it is, a fat tax = extortion. No one should extort you into eating healthy. They are slowly nibbling away at our liberties and the time has come to put our foot down. Enough! Just say no to the government extortion racket! The government has no right to tell anyone what they can or can't eat, drink, or smoke. These are the simplest of freedoms and when they are taken away from you, you can no longer consider yourself a "free" person.
I think incentives for people who led healthy lifestlye may be a more benefical solution.
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This was a really nice post. Nicely done, well structured. Definitely going to lookout for your future posts. Thanks for sharing.
taxes are tyrannical . that is their purpose; tyranny by clerk. funny how there are never mass protests against taxes and the financial slavery and misery they impose.
It's a wonderful post, thought provoking to say the least.
Instead of trying to take advantage of the situation and taxing the obese, it's important to incentivise the healthy people making healthy choices - less fat food, exercising and active lot.
As was pointed out in the comments, educating everyone is the key issue
'Nutrition is not taught enough in school'.. Nothing could me more right! I believe personally that Health & Nutrition should be a class mandatory all the way from Kindergarten to Higher diploma at-least! Primarily I believe parents should be influences right to make sure the kids get the right eating habits! And speaking about tax, India has implemented the GST tax system and I have summed up the happenings since its launch last week @ https://steemit.com/democracy/@alexkoshy/the-largest-democracy-in-the-world-moving-forward-or-falling-apart-with-its-newly-enforced-gst