Thursday, September 24, 2009

Sugar tax for improved national health outcomes?

Sidebar poll from The New England Journal of Medicine:

Do you favor taxing sugar-sweetened beverages as a way of helping to finance health care reform and improving public health?

No (26.0%, 493 Votes)

Yes (74.0%, 1,419 Votes)

Total Voters: 1,912 (as of 9/17/09)

Your vote???
at

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousThursday, September 24, 2009 at 12:31:00 PM CDT

    Yes! Why not? We tax cigarettes in order to discourage smoking, which has dramatic known negative health consequences we all wind up paying for. Why not start taxing the sources of the obesity epidemic?

    Ken
    Dallas

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel GrayThursday, September 24, 2009 at 1:26:00 PM CDT

    We're subsidizing the corn syrup in our sweet snacks. Might as well tax the sugar so it evens out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFriday, September 25, 2009 at 4:05:00 PM CDT

    It's a flawed idea. You tax something to discourage its consumption but also to raise revenue? It doesn't make sense, sends a mixed message and represents government intruding too much in the lives of private citizens..

    ReplyDelete