Alright, America. Let's Start Taxing Junk Food.

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  • ltlemermaid
    ltlemermaid Posts: 637 Member
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    I have always thought that the fresh good for you/healthy foods should be cheaper and more available for everyone to consume. I say bring back the cooking classes in schools to teach kids/ and offer more adult classes on how to cook a meal from scratch instead of reaching for the easy junkfood that is done in 2 minutes in the microwave. In my area they have cooking classes in several locations but the prices for these classes are outrageous--I know the teachers need to make $$ but this also limits people attending. Unfortunately most foods that people purchase is cheaply made and fake--just take a look and you will be shocked how many different things have High fructose corn syrup in them--the government controlls the corn/farmers and its CHEAP to use corn/byproducts in regular foods, driving the cost of junk food way down. Fresh foods don't have this ingredient, take time to grow and harvest and farmers/pickers need to get paid (not that most get a lot anyway...but thats another rant!)

    When I moved out of my parents home and on my own I lived off of the cheap stuff as much as possible--its all I could afford. Over the years that has slightly changed as well as my eating habits. Going out to a restaurant has become a special occasion/or 1x a month ordeal since the cost of dinner for 2 adults at a nice restaurant can also buy me a weeks worth of groceries or close to it!

    I started going to my local farmers market--their prices on veggies and fruits are comprable (sometimes cheaper) to those in the store but I know that they are fresh and not been sitting in a truck for days! I price comparison shop all the time. For grocery stores I look for sales on meats, (most sales are only available for junk) shop at Aldi for most things and its a lot cheaper than other grocery stores. They do not have organics, but they do have a good selection of produce.

    I am currently looking into local farms to get eggs and meats from, my parents go to an Amish farm in WI and get great stuff for real cheap-definitly a lot cheaper than the stores and its better for you!

    I don't disgree with taxing junk foods, but if they do that they NEED to FIRST make fresh healthy foods more available for everyone not just the wealthy!
  • jlizgar
    jlizgar Posts: 104
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    Part of me agrees, but then, the larger part of me doesn't. Penn and Teller did an episode of their show Bull****! on hating fast food, and one of the points one of their guests pointed out was that many of the people who eat fast food a lot of the time are lower income. Taxing fast food won't make healthy food any cheaper, it will just make it harder to make ends meet. The cost of a lot of good food is made artificially high by government subsidies, and if those were done away with, the food that people should be eating would also be the food they could afford.

    PS. I work in fast food, and you wouldn't believe the amount of people who come through my drive through with kids unbuckled, small children out of their car seats, beer in their cup holders, smoking a blunt (usually only one or two of these at a time), and any other illegal and dangerous activity they can do in a car. If you really want fast food companies to do something good for the communities they're in- make us report drunk drivers and everything else we see to law enforcement!

    So, you DONT report these things when you see them? Just take the tag number as they drive off and call it in! You can even wait till break time or end of shift, but there is no way id witness someone with a young child out of the carseat and not report that, or someone drinking alcohol behind the wheel and not call that in, he could drive off and kill someone in an accident :(
  • jlizgar
    jlizgar Posts: 104
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    I would also argue that it is not as expensive as people think to eat healthy! Not sure on the prices in the states, but I hear it in OZ aswell and I put this comparison forward.

    To feed a family of 4 for dinner.

    macdonalds would be around $24 (4 meal deals at $5.95 each)

    Or you could buy 500g chicken breast for $7 ($14/kg)
    Some white rice for about $2
    Packet of frozen stir fry vegies $4
    And some stir fry sauces from the pantry say $2 becasue you only use a small amount out of a large bottle/jar (soy and garlic etc)
    So now you have fed a family of four a healthy meal and quite filling for $15. $9 cheaper than macca's.

    So I do not agree with the people saying that healthy eating is expensive! It just takes a little bit of education and effort.

    Education? O.K, Can you explain why low fat versions of everything are NEVER on sale? Baked lays vs 99 cent UTZ chips,
    The price of ground beef vs ground turkey, Im not evern going to bring up the price of fish. And that $24 McDonalds meal feeds a family of 4, while a healthy sushi dinner cost $24 a person! Crystal light compared to koolaid, Organic ANYTHING is also more expensive. I get what you are sayuing...it CAN be done, but to I am middle class, and I'm pretty much limited to turkey burgers and chicken, once in awhile I can have some fish.

    Actually, I no longer buy ground beef as ive found that ground turkey is MUCH cheaper in my area and also much more healthy...im in the State of Virginia, so I dont know how it is elsewhere, and I know that the prices used to be much different but lately ive been getting ground turkey for very good prices
  • ivyjbres
    ivyjbres Posts: 612 Member
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    Part of me agrees, but then, the larger part of me doesn't. Penn and Teller did an episode of their show Bull****! on hating fast food, and one of the points one of their guests pointed out was that many of the people who eat fast food a lot of the time are lower income. Taxing fast food won't make healthy food any cheaper, it will just make it harder to make ends meet. The cost of a lot of good food is made artificially high by government subsidies, and if those were done away with, the food that people should be eating would also be the food they could afford.

    PS. I work in fast food, and you wouldn't believe the amount of people who come through my drive through with kids unbuckled, small children out of their car seats, beer in their cup holders, smoking a blunt (usually only one or two of these at a time), and any other illegal and dangerous activity they can do in a car. If you really want fast food companies to do something good for the communities they're in- make us report drunk drivers and everything else we see to law enforcement!

    So, you DONT report these things when you see them? Just take the tag number as they drive off and call it in! You can even wait till break time or end of shift, but there is no way id witness someone with a young child out of the carseat and not report that, or someone drinking alcohol behind the wheel and not call that in, he could drive off and kill someone in an accident :(

    Truth is when its every other car: no. If just one store does that, they loose business and go under. Unless all of the competing businesses are required to report drivers doing that, the policy will stay at eyerolls and "can-you-believe-that?!!" People won't quit going to all fast food location because of public policy. But they will quit going to one store or brand because of that stores policy. I hate to make it about the money, but I like being able to take care of my family, and I need a job to do that.
  • SaveTheDrama
    SaveTheDrama Posts: 62
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    First I don't believe in putting a tax on junk food. I can' stand stand how that seems to be an answer for everything. Tax on cigarettes, fine do you know how much the government makes off of that one tax? I dare to say it will be the same for a junk food tax. Then you have to think who is going to decide what is junk food and what is not. I know you may not want to hear this but junk food is not unhealthy in moderation. Also price is not the only reason low income families are drawn to fast food. In my and my husbands case when we were first married and struggling to make it, we had two jobs each, and I am sorry after working 13-14 hours a day I did not want to come home and cook! Our friends who were in the same position all did the same. I am sorry but all this would do is make the poor poorer, if you have an income high enough to where this would not effect you at all, good for you, but alot of people don't and they do what they can to put food in their bellies, stop and think about how something like this will effect everone.
  • MrsSki
    MrsSki Posts: 196
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    I'm not sure I agree with taxing junk foods. There was a study done in the Tribune (a major newspaper in Chicago) about the access of fruits and veggies and healthy foods in the city. Most lower-income areas had really poor access, hardly any grocery stores, and mostly had convenience stores and 7/11's. So it really is about an availability thing.

    I agree education is part of it as well. And the pp who talked about have "Home Ec" classes back in schools, that's a really good idea. It's about teaching kids how to take care of themselves, how is that ever a bad thing?

    Also the farm subsidies in this country are ridiculous, I agree the smaller family owned operations need the subsidies, but the huge factory farms do not.

    And while we're a medium income family, I can never afford to shop at Whole Foods, or really even buy anything organic at any grocery store. I do most of our shopping at Aldi. They have really low prices, and if you shop the same day their produce is delivered you can get some great produce on sale too.
  • girlruns
    girlruns Posts: 344
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    While I agree that education is a big step toward healthy eating, access is another big issue. My husband works at a Walgreens that is in a very low income neighborhood. Many of the people living there have to walk everywhere, and in walking distance are several fast food joints (and the Walgreens) but there isn't a grocery store to be found. 6 different booze shops, not one Pick n Save.

    There is public transportation, but I can see why it is much easier to get mac & cheese at Walgreens or to swing through Burger King's drive thru than to bus to a grocery store, buy things that (correctly or not) are viewed to be more expensive, and require knowledge and time to cook/make them.

    I'm not entirely against taxing junk food, but I think the tax should be for the company making it, not the people buying it.
  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
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    How about first build access to healthy affordable food in poor areas before taxing them to death. Or better yet, start taxing the companies to death that are producing the crap food.

    I was very poor a couple years ago, and I lived off of 89 cent burritos from taco bell and the free pizza I got at work (when I was lucky to get a freebie). Sad, but true. It really sucks to have to go through that.

    Crap food is already expensive (minus the dollar menus), and they have already enacted a tax on soda (sweet beverage tax).

    This.

    As someone else stated... it is easy to walk to fast food restaurants in poor neighborhoods. If you are lucky, there might be a corner store and it you are really lucky it might have some fresh meat and veggies... but typically not. This is a much larger problem than poor people just choosing to eat junk food.

    I don't know what I would do without Aldi's either... produce is about 1/2 the price of what I'd have to pay at a larger chain store and ground turkey is much cheaper as well (and I am fortunate that I have a car and my pick of grocery stores within 5 miles of my house... I've met many, many people who don't have that luxury).

    I'd probably vote against a junk food tax, given the option.
  • lee112780
    lee112780 Posts: 419 Member
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    First I don't believe in putting a tax on junk food. I can' stand stand how that seems to be an answer for everything. Tax on cigarettes, fine do you know how much the government makes off of that one tax? I dare to say it will be the same for a junk food tax. Then you have to think who is going to decide what is junk food and what is not. I know you may not want to hear this but junk food is not unhealthy in moderation. Also price is not the only reason low income families are drawn to fast food. In my and my husbands case when we were first married and struggling to make it, we had two jobs each, and I am sorry after working 13-14 hours a day I did not want to come home and cook! Our friends who were in the same position all did the same. I am sorry but all this would do is make the poor poorer, if you have an income high enough to where this would not effect you at all, good for you, but alot of people don't and they do what they can to put food in their bellies, stop and think about how something like this will effect everone.

    I was just gonna bring that up. Most people work ...alot! We don't have time to make everything from scratch, and cook all day. trust me, wish I did have the time, but its a lot easier to cook something quick like mac and cheese instead of homemade mashed poatoes from scratch! Of course it's not healthy, but the food companies are making it more difficult for us to eat right.
  • lee112780
    lee112780 Posts: 419 Member
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    My husband and I were just talking about this last night. We were at Wal Mart doing a cost comparison (and getting me a new scale!), and a small container of Naked Juice was around $5 while a gallon of Sunny D was $2. That is why people with low incomes, or even moderate incomes (like we have) have a hard time eating healthy. It's just SO expensive! I'd love to be able to go out each week to Whole Foods and grocery shop there, but it's not possible. I think that if junk cost more, people would buy it less, and in turn be more healthy. Why do you think the US is the fattest nation in the world? Because of the food that's available to us.
    Yes!! I live in a upper class area, and whole foods is the only really close store to me. Its rediculously priced!!!!! There were no Whole Foods in my old neighborhood in Queens, they would go out of business. Pathmark is thriving though! I just don't understand why people pay so much more for basically the same thing.
  • Equilibrium
    Equilibrium Posts: 37 Member
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    Cooking at home doesn't have to take hours a day -- I'd be eating a bowl of cereal every night if that were the case! It take a few minutes to make mac & cheese from ingredients instead of using that blue package (is it still blue?). Put the pasta on to boil, make a white sauce, grate the cheese while the white sauce is cooking, add the cheese to the white sauce, drain the pasta, mix the cheese sauce with the pasta. BTW, this isn't a good example on a purely cost comparison, as those boxes of mac & cheese are incredibly cheap, as I remember.

    Lots of meals can be made quickly. There are plenty of good meals to make that can be put together in 10-15 minutes, and so many more if you go up to 30 minutes. I couldn't spend hours or even an hour cooking after working all day. Besides that, if there is more than one person in the house, cooking can be speeded up by having everyone help.

    This all goes back to education, though. I'm not just talking about Home Economics or cookery lessons in school. I guess cooking lessons are expensive. It seems that some really basic cooking lessons are needed. But who is going to offer it? Governments are stretched. Charities are stretched. I wouldn't know how to address this need. Maybe that's where a fast food tax could go? lol
  • amy1612
    amy1612 Posts: 1,356 Member
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    I agree, home cooked decent meals dont have to take that long....or,buy a cheap slow cooker, bang everything in on a morning and you have a nice healthy meal reay for when you get in from work. I usually make tomorrows lunch the night before,all I have to do is stick some pasta on, whizz up some tomatoes in the blender,and then add whatever else and theres a healthy,filling lunch. To buy a bag of pasta, some vegetables,etc, might cost about £5 for a whole weeks worth of lunches, you could spend that daily on a sandwich or something.

    It is a case of education,the example of "healthier" crisps never being on deals isnt a good one...its not a case of eating crisps with less calories,its a case of eating less crisps. If people want to live healthier lives they need reeducating and to stop thinking that eating well takes so much effort.

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