Uncle Sam Soda Tax?

[fish-fighting-illini]

 Saw the other day San Francisco mayor passing a tax aimed at soda distributors. The proceeds of which were to be used for health programs aimed at obesity. I can see their point although it does lean toward the government nosy syndrome. ( The mayor seemed pretty young and pretty sharp not some nut job).

Maybe some alternatives would be

1. outlaw the sale of soda in qty's larger than x number of ounces ( (say 12) in one container. If someone wants a 36 ounce drink they can get it but will have to be "inconvenienced" a little.

2. maybe a special tax but only on larger drinks

3. how about taking that tax and putting it toward fast food places and chain rest's in the form of making them profit on water or milk as an alternative drink? Only make it for water in soda type cups so as not to add yet more plastic to land fills ( not to mention wasted oil ). In short just offer a healthy alternative at a reasonable price.

Just food for thought ( pardon the pun ).

Can we say FFI - AKA Matt Crum for president?

[Cajun1977]

or how about people take responsability and quit blaming everyone else cause they are overweight.

[Fish Man]

one thing i saw a while ago that got me rilled up was that soe people were trying to make it illegal to discriinate agaitns obese paople. now im not saying its alright to go aroundd makeing fun of each other but come on if they spent half as much time trying to lose the wait they wouldnt have the problem

[KYbass1276]

or how about people take responsability and quit blaming everyone else cause they are overweight.

Ding Ding Ding and we have a winner.  I totally agree.   Big brother watching out for us agin.    

All you had to say was San Francisco and I could of guessed it was going to be something stupid.     >

[Cajun1977]

one thing i saw a while ago that got me rilled up was that soe people were trying to make it illegal to discriinate agaitns obese paople. now im not saying its alright to go aroundd makeing fun of each other but come on if they spent half as much time trying to lose the wait they wouldnt have the problem

are you saying it should be ok to discriminate against obese people?

[Fish Man]

one thing i saw a while ago that got me rilled up was that soe people were trying to make it illegal to discriinate agaitns obese paople. now im not saying its alright to go aroundd makeing fun of each other but come on if they spent half as much time trying to lose the wait they wouldnt have the problem

are you saying it should be ok to discriminate against obese people?

i may not have made that clear enoguh if so sorry but thats what i was saying is not to discriminate them but the report i heard on the radio about it was insane how long they had been trying and how much they had done when they could have tryed losing the weight rather than find away around it.. at least thats the way i feel

[HUNTER19]

or how about people take responsability and quit blaming everyone else cause they are overweight.

wow so amazing!!! Couldnt agree more with you!!! I cant stand people that sue Micky D's beacasue it made them fat??? Thats what they dont have biggy size any more

[skillet]

"or how about people take responsability and quit blaming everyone else"

 That is SO not the American Way anymore ...

                                  As Ever,

                                   skillet

BTW Was trying to make a funny and thinking about, it's not funny at all. The TRUTH sometimes hurts!!!

[Popeye]

"1984" is going to be a little late. IF obese people would WALK to the donut shop down the street instead of getting in their car and driving, maybe they wouldn't be so obese in the first place(??). The real key to weight loss/management is EXERCISE and eating the RIGHT foods, IMO. Ever see an obese long distance runner or Tour De France cyclist?

[Big T]

or how about people take responsability and quit blaming everyone else cause they are overweight.

I agree 100%. People need to take repsonsibility for their own actions. No one forces someone to drink sodas. I drink diet drinks because the sugar in regular drinks mess with my blood sugar and my weight. When I drank five regular 1 liter Sun Drops or Mountain Dews it was choice.

Just my opinion.

T

[Masshole Mike]

if all i eat is mcdonald's, but i don't gain a pound, can i sue them because i DIDN'T get fat?

[Matt Fly]

I don't hate or dislike over weight people. I do think laziness and poor parenting have complicated the issues.

I also will say my parents didn't have Cable, internet or video games to deal with.

As kids, we came home and played outside, that would be playing and not sitting, which burned calories.

The percentage of fat kids in my school back in the 60-70's was alot less than todays kids. Cause kids were active, we had to, we didn't have coach potatoe games.

Face it, if you stick out like a sore thumb, your gonna draw attention.

Like a kid with spiked hair, or purple hair, or dressed all black, nails, hair and makeup. Skinny as a twig or fat, if you are different, you'll be talked about.

Small percentage of fat people would have valid reason for being fat.

And if you think I'm insensitive, well, I didn't ask them to try to squeeze into those 8's when they are a size 16.

Most over weight people can do something about there conditions if they wanted to.

And its okay to pay money and go to comedy club to see some comic use weight or his mama weight has punch lines,

but not okay in open society as Americans.

Soda tax, what a joke!!!!!

Instead of medical use, why not use the money for trainers, problem with that is, they same people don't want to put that kind of effort into being healthy.

Its called a lazyiness.

[farmpond1]

Should I sue Girl Scouts of America if I eat twenty boxes of their thin mints?  (I'd probably need to sue them because I'd be wiped out financially).  I digress.  Anyway, I'll admit that restaurants don't offer very many healthy options but it's my choice if I decide to eat there anyway.  Nobody is pointing a gun at my head.  Our society has become such a bunch of whiners.  No one wants to assume personal responsibility for anything anymore.

[frogtog]

I just don't  know what to say about this, I thought yall were my friends.  :-/

[farmpond1]

I just don't know what to say about this, I thought yall were my friends. :-/

???????

[fish-fighting-illini]

  Read my post closer I'm not blaming anyone nor am I saying tell them what to do. I'm merely saying that obesity is at epidemic levels. The soda idea is creative thinking in my book. My ideas were just to offer smart alternatives to encourage people to make healthier choices. I don't necessarily agree with the mayors approach. Although well intended I think often those ideas are a a sneaky approach to put money in the cities coffers. I was just trying to offer some clever ideas on how to HELp solve a problem. I have to give the mayor some credit he sees a problem and is trying to do something fairly reasonable about it. That is what leaders do they LEAD. Not always popular but some times leading means a new approach.

 If losing weight were all that simple everyone would have already done it because no one wants to be overweight. Much the same as all those people who try to quit smoking would but it is not that simple. Can we all do better and make smarter decisions? yes but you cannot snap your fingers and solve this complex.

[Big T]

Okay I see the rational for the soda tax, but if we are going have a tax on soda, then we need a dougnut tax, a fastfood tax and a candy tax.  Also let's not forget a higher tax on red meat, alchohol and everything else that s all of sudden bad for the general public. Plain and simple people need to exercise instead of sitting on their butt gripping about being obese. Unless you are completly parlyzed there is no excuse for not exercising. And I amnot being cold hearted either, because I had spinal cord surgery last year and I am still able to lift weights and walk on a tread mill 2 to 3 times a week which has improved my leg strength and nerve damage that I suffered.

JUst my opinion

[frogtog]

In the end we all die no mater what size we are.

[Hookemdown.]

I'm still waiting for LBH to post something like...

"I'm fat and I'm happy"

[fish-fighting-illini]

Okay I see the rational for the soda tax, but if we are going have a tax on soda, .....

JUst my opinion

Some excellent points Stokes.

Maybe no tax at all then. Maybe the smaller oz portions only attempt. Or take some existing food tax revenue and shift it to supplementing the profit of water in resturaunts. Doing anything is better than nothing i would think.  I agree we've got ourselves to blame mostly but are their creative ways to fix it? Can we help lieelt kids in a small way before they get out of hand? Maybe they see the parents drinking water and that becomes second nature rather than soda.

[Fish Man]

I'm still waiting for LBH to post something like...

"I'm fat and I'm happy"

what would LBH know about being "big"? lol    ;D

[Big T]

Okay I see the rational for the soda tax, but if we are going have a tax on soda, .....

JUst my opinion

Some excellent points Stokes.

Maybe no tax at all then. Maybe the smaller oz portions only attempt. Or take some existing food tax revenue and shift it to supplementing the profit of water in resturaunts. Doing anything is better than nothing i would think. I agree we've got ourselves to blame mostly but are their creative ways to fix it? Can we help lieelt kids in a small way before they get out of hand? Maybe they see the parents drinking water and that becomes second nature rather than soda.

I agree, I mean I drink a ton of sodas, although diet drinks now. I would have never known what hey were had my parents and my grandparents not given it to me a toddler. We as Americans have become somewhat of lets blame everyone else society. We have to have too many think tanks, an studies rather than acting.Fish-fighting-illini, I appologize to you if I sounded sarcastic or pompus. I wasn't trying to be hateful sounding, just trying to point out at what point to we stop taxing everything.

T.Stokes

[Guest muddy]

POINT TO CONSIDER HERE;

If Mama Cass, had shared her sandwhich with Karen Carpenter: THEY MIGHT BOTH STILL BE HERE

[frogtog]

Allwright I'm outta here, I'm going to McDonald's to get me a milk shake. ;D

[fish-fighting-illini]

No problem at all Stokes, no offense taken. I enjoyed the different points of view although I admit I do struggle with it when not everyone agrees with me LOL.  

d**n it I like to be right all of the time! LOL

Your last reply was a nice touch very well put very classy.

In print in general can be misleading as hearing how someone sounds can be way different than what they are saying in print. I personaly have made that mistake on more than one occasion.

 I'm usualy leading the charge on the "anti blame someone else" brigade.

 Again no offense taken of any kind and no implied sarcasam taken. I enjoyed the conversation.