Should junk food be taxed?

Dazzler21

Dazzler21 wrote: »

Extremely heavily.

No change in opinion...

Dazzler21

Knokr wrote: »

No! In cook county they raised alcohol tax and added a tax to any sort of sugary drink and it’s annoying but it doesn’t prevent me from buying anything.

Is that because it's not an everyday purchase?

Personally I think the increase in tax (were it to occur) would need to be coupled with a tax break on healthy foods and drinks.

CSARdiver

VegHeadGettingFit wrote: »

If they taxed the companies that produce it instead of the consumer, sure.

Companies don't pay taxes....ever. This is always passed onto the consumer.

Mandylou19912014

janejellyroll wrote: »

Mandylou19912014 wrote: »

I think even if the tax went up on these foods then people would still eat just as much from them. What they should do is reduce the cost of fruit and vegetables and those “super foods” like nuts and seeds etc so people on lower incomes can afford to make them a staple in their diets. I think there should be more NHS funded personal training and diet guidances or something similar outside of the UK

If you're using "staple food" in the sense of a food eaten in such quantities that it forms a dominant portion of the diet, I don't know if making nuts/seeds a staple food for people will result in the population weighing less overall.

So .. by staple foods I mean more like your fruit and veg .. I really do think they should reduce the cost of these types of foods to encourage more people to buy them

ritzvin

Mandylou19912014 wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

Mandylou19912014 wrote: »

I think even if the tax went up on these foods then people would still eat just as much from them. What they should do is reduce the cost of fruit and vegetables and those “super foods” like nuts and seeds etc so people on lower incomes can afford to make them a staple in their diets. I think there should be more NHS funded personal training and diet guidances or something similar outside of the UK

If you're using "staple food" in the sense of a food eaten in such quantities that it forms a dominant portion of the diet, I don't know if making nuts/seeds a staple food for people will result in the population weighing less overall.

So .. by staple foods I mean more like your fruit and veg .. I really do think they should reduce the cost of these types of foods to encourage more people to buy them

not terribly likely to happen since we can't, you know, teleport food on demand from the farms. We do freeze and can fruits and vegetables to improve shelf life (and make them available and remotely affordable in the off-seasons), and selectively bred/engineered/treated what we can for improved shelf/transport life, ... but there's an obvious limit to how cheap we can feasibly make the fresh, perishable items required by food snobs.

VUA21

No. We pay enough in taxes already.

isaiahfap_216

"Healthy" food should be made more affordable. You can get fruit and veg reasonably cheap nowadays but god help you if you need anything else. Taxing in my opinion doesn't really work because the financial negative incentive doesn't really counteract the physical positive incentive. it's just another way for governments to make more money.

fuzzylop72

Before taxing products, maybe we should consider whether or not we really need to subsidize agriculture products, and see if we can get good results by just letting everything cost the fair market value, instead of taking advantage of artificially low corn prices.

jenniferleavitt1

I don't agree with taxing junk food, we pay too much in tax already, and the definition of "junk food" is too broad, at least to me. One man's junk is another man's treat, or treasure. However, I do agree with the people who say that we should decrease the price of healthy alternatives such as fruits and veggies. I think that most people would go for healthier options, if they were priced better. I know that I try and eat clean and healthy but it gets really expensive sometimes.
Example I can go to McDonalds and get a cheeseburger meal for $5.99 (ish) or I can go to chopped leaf and get a salad for $14.00. If I'm on a budget but want a treat, or forgot lunch and am starving I'm probably going to pick McDonald's, just because of the cost. However, if the price of the salad was comparable to the burger I'd go for the salad every time.
Not saying that everyone will do this, but I think that it would make a big difference to a lot of people if we could get healthy food for cheaper than junk food.

Packerjohn

I don't buy the idea reducing prices on "healthy foods" would increase consumption of these items. Look around at an all you can eat one price restaurant and notice the ratio of veggies and fruit compared to greasy entries, cheese bread, sugar/fat laden deserts, etc.