Could a tax on chocolate (hmmm... chocolate) be the answer to the obesity crisis?

reply to post by JohnnyCanuck

Look at it this way, Redneck...why should you do the heavy lifting on paying the health costs of an unhealthy society if you treat your own self better? Even if you don't have universal health care...there is still a societal cost, even if it only means you have to work harder to make up for that ill co-worker.

This gets back into the myth of my use of a service costing some one else. It6 doesn't. I have paid my own medical bills all my life, either directly or occasionally through insurance. Please, if you have been paying my medical bills, contact whomever you paid; you are due a refund.

Ironically, a socialized health care system would allow this argument to contain some validity, and that is exactly why I oppose such. You are completely correct that I should not pay more because others have health issues. Neither should you. Neither do we.

Edit to add:I'm a little slow sometimes... I just noticed the nick. As I understand it, Canada does have a socialized health care system. My opinions are based on present US policy, where socialized medicine is not a given.

TheRedneck


[edit on 3/17/2009 by TheRedneck]

We already tax cigs.. Lets tax everything that's bad for you while were at it! It will be fun! Cheese, chocolate, cake, burgers, burritos.. you get the point. Death to sin tax!

reply to post by whoswatchinwho


Not in the slightest, I eat very little chocolate and I'm pretty chubby, obesity has a lot to do with portion sizes that are too big and food that is bad for you being super inexpensive.

So what they should do is put a tax on food that's got a high percentage of transfat or cholesterol or artificial chemical additives while giving incentives to organic and natural food makers.

Now this is a sin tax I an agree with. Chocolate tastes so good that if we allow a tax on it, people would pay it. It would seem more special in a way. And it makes people feel good.

A tax from something that makes people feel good is a good plan. That way we will not mind so much paying the tax. We could fund so many things if we put a $2.00 tax on every ounce of chocolate. I say we should make it go toward our debt we owe China. That would be a lot of chocolate bars we would have to consume.

Well I don't see why not. They tax my cigs. They also tax my alcohol and my alcohol doesn't have no second hand smoke. I just drink at home with my wife. No DUIs or nothing. I'm not botherin anyone else right?

They also tax on all kinds of other stuff. Blank CDs are taxed so the money can go the RIAA and I don't download or pirate music. The DVD-burners have a separate tax as well. I can only hear outta one ear after all lol. They tax the tires on my car and everything. You pay a disposal tax on them when you buy em new, and another disposal tax when you actually dispose of it.

If eating chocolate leads to obesity and health problems that the tax payer has to pay for later then I don't see why anyone else shouldn't have to pay a tax on chocolate. Really, stop being a baby about it and just pay your taxes. Do what your gov tells you to do.

Oh, you thought after the smokers and drinkers were demonized by our own government so they could put a tax on us without anybody second guessing it, that we were gonna stand up for you? What did you think they were gonna do when the cig tax and the alcohol tax wasn't enough? We told you it was a slippery slope right? Now pay your taxes like a good citizen. I know I won't be behind you helping you protest it. I don't eat chocolate. So, there's no reason for me to be against the tax right?

Originally posted by tinfoilman
I don't eat chocolate. So, there's no reason for me to be against the tax right?

I don't eat chocolate either and I have heard that second hand chocolate is even worse! I say that we should tax chocolate!

reply to post by tinfoilman
I'll take a warn for a one-line post this time! *stands up and applauds tinfoilman*

TheRedneck
(is my signature a second line? Oh, well, this question is. )

Originally posted by TheRedneck
reply to post by tinfoilman
I'll take a warn for a one-line post this time! *stands up and applauds tinfoilman*

TheRedneck
(is my signature a second line? Oh, well, this question is.

)

Hmmm.
Don't usually get applauded on the Internet.

*humbly takes a bow and thanks the thread*.
Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week. Goodnight!

Why not just tax sugar and it's equivalents...chocolate, how stupid of an idea.

It does not matter how much it costs look at the price of cigs
People will still buy it anyway

Originally posted by Oldtimer2
Thats kind of a shot in the dark,I eat chocolate all the time and I could hardly be called obese,goes with anything,if you eat 5 lbs of something sure you will get fat,not the substance it's the consumption

I am having a daquiri while perusing this site, and only one. I may have another before the night is over. But I am not an alcoholic, even tho I am denying it. You eat alot, you fatten up. You drink alot, you are a drunk. However, if you eat only a LITTLE HFCS instead of sugar, you will get fat. And if you have only a LITTLE crystal meth, you will be a drug addict. The question is not quantity so much as ingredients. I eat chocolate alot, and I weighed just a max of 110 until last month. Chocolate is GOOD for you, health experts are now finding out. But more the chocolate with less sugar.

reply to post by tinfoilman
I do not know what country you are in, but the American government spends 75% of the GNP. That is federal, state, county, and local added together. So how much is our tax? And BS wants to raise our tax another 30%, so it is only 105%. And who will be dumb enough to continue to work, so it costs them more than not working? Or, more likely, as in the former USSR, all commerce, or most, will go beneath the table so as to avoid government theft. I am in no way condoning avoiding taxation, any more than I would condone avoiding rape or murder. But people are realistic, unlike governments, and they are also human. May your life be interesting?

There is no obesity crisis and chocolate has nothing to do with being fat or 'obese'. If you must have it - eat dark chocolate.. it's loaded with antioxidants. I'd rather tax cannabis - could be the answer to the financial crisis in CA and many other states.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck
reply to post by whoswatchinwho

 

It's not the chocolates so much as it's the fats. Transfats in particular should be taxed because they contribute directly to bad health. It's part of a high fructose sugar-transfat-salt-msg flavour bomb that's cheap and keeps the folks coming back.

Tax the bad stuff (they add to public health costs anyway), take the tax off the good stuff (especially fitmness programmes).

I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree with that sentiment.

As I see it, the government gets enough of my money, they don't need to tax what I eat. I understand that things like transfat and such are bad for you, but what isn't these days? It's not up the government to control what I eat, it's up to me and it all comes down to moderation. I don't eat fast food regularly but yeah once in a while I can go for a bacon cheeseburger and fries, why do I have to pay an additional tax because it's unhealthy? Because some buearucrat thinks they know what's best for me? They shouldn't be taxing or (I believe it's NYC that did this) banning trans-fat in resturants, because they believe "it's for our own good" blah blah crapola. IMO, it's wrong for them to tax anything like chocolate, fast food, twinkies, soda, ect.

They tax you when you are born, they tax you when you marry, they tax you when you die. I believe I'll have another TEA PARTY!

Taxing chocolate to cut down obesity, I don't think so.
If you're obese then you have a problem anyway, if it costs more to buy a bar of choccy do they really think it'll stop those people from buying and consuming it? Of course not, it's just yet another way to get more money from the poor peons.

Wow. That is just a dumb excuse to tax the people. If they did that, then they would need to also tax candy, fast food, fried foods..The list goes on. It is funny listening to what some people say..Sad, but funny.

Oh yeah so I have to pay more for something I enjoy in moderation because others cant control themselves?? I dont think chocolate is responsible for obesity. It's the own person's fault nobody else. They CHOOSE to eat the way they do nobody forces them. You dont have to have 2 burgers when you go out to eat do you? I shouldnt have to pay more for anything because someone cant control their urges.

That's just a stupid idea. As many people have pointed out before me, chocolate is hardly to blame for "the obesity crisis." Good chocolate has lots of antioxidants in it. That's like putting a tax on veggieburgers and hamburgers because they're both burgers. Absurd. I'm amazed at the sheer amount of stupidity floating around in the minds of educated people.

Does anyone else read the blog junkfoodscience.blogspot.com ? They really call out a lot of bull.

Our Founding Fathers were outraged by the taxes levied on their tea. So outraged that they dumped the stuff in Boston Harbor and switched to drinking coffee. The rest is history.

The government wants to tax my chocolate, then they better watch out! There could be a chocolate wave headed their way. I would gladly dump my representatives into Boston Harbor before I will give up chocolate.

By the way, I am at my ideal weight.