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Should junk food be taxed?
Replies
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Carlos_421 wrote: »Holy superfluous punctuation, Batman!
It's my MO!0 -
DeficitDuchess wrote: »
It's my MO!
Why? I almost can't read it.1 -
Why? I almost can't read it.
I am unfortunately just, naturally difficult!0 -
DeficitDuchess wrote: »
I am unfortunately just, naturally difficult!
Ah, I get it. Not worth reading.1 -
Ah, I get it. Not worth reading.
Said the person with a sentence not worth writing.
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Everyone wants to help the homeless, I get that. In fact, as someone who found himself homeless for a short period in my life, I appreciate the fact that others want to help.
Here's where my problem is: You don't really want to help.
Re-read that last line VERY carefully and go look at yourself in the mirror.
If you *really* wanted to help, you'd volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
You would take the talents that you have - even basic math is not a trivial thing - and share it with the homeless by donating your time and services to them.
You would organize a local food drive within your place of worship or your community center or your neighborhood.
You would go buy sleeping bags or blankets on clearance in some of the butt-ugliest colors imaginable (but cheap) and go pass them out to shelters, churches that cater to the homeless, or even to people you see on the streets.
But no, you don't *really* want to help. What you *really* want is to feel good that you did something special by throwing money at the government and blindly believing that *THEY* will distribute in a wise and efficient manner.
Have you been to DMV lately? There is nothing wise nor efficient about the government. Every dollar you give to the government to help the homeless or the poor gives the homeless and the poor a nice bright shiny DIME.
Yeah, the rest goes to fund the bureau, the committee to decide what they should do with the money, the workers who process all the paperwork that the committee wrote that the bureau approved and the managers, administrators and executives on the committee.
If you *really* wanted to help, tell the government to quit taking your fu@#%$! taxes and you could then find toothbrushes and toothpaste on sale at the local pharmacy and buy some up in bulk - heck, maybe even get bonus rewards for doing so (charity can pay off, sometimes) and go take them to a shelter.
If you *really* wanted to help, you'd get up off your butt and do it. You wouldn't sit around and talk about what the GOVERNMENT should do to help all those poor suffering waifs.
Seriously, why in the heck does this thing keep appearing under my feet???!?!?
<steps down from soapbox>6 -
What about lowering tax for produce and other healthy foods0
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YaGirlMaddi wrote: »What about lowering tax for produce and other healthy foods
What specific tax?
Many states don't tax food sales, and most others that do have a much lower tax on them.2 -
Said the person with a sentence not worth writing.
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Everyone wants to help the homeless, I get that. In fact, as someone who found himself homeless for a short period in my life, I appreciate the fact that others want to help.
Here's where my problem is: You don't really want to help.
Re-read that last line VERY carefully and go look at yourself in the mirror.
If you *really* wanted to help, you'd volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
You would take the talents that you have - even basic math is not a trivial thing - and share it with the homeless by donating your time and services to them.
You would organize a local food drive within your place of worship or your community center or your neighborhood.
You would go buy sleeping bags or blankets on clearance in some of the butt-ugliest colors imaginable (but cheap) and go pass them out to shelters, churches that cater to the homeless, or even to people you see on the streets.
But no, you don't *really* want to help. What you *really* want is to feel good that you did something special by throwing money at the government and blindly believing that *THEY* will distribute in a wise and efficient manner.
Have you been to DMV lately? There is nothing wise nor efficient about the government. Every dollar you give to the government to help the homeless or the poor gives the homeless and the poor a nice bright shiny DIME.
Yeah, the rest goes to fund the bureau, the committee to decide what they should do with the money, the workers who process all the paperwork that the committee wrote that the bureau approved and the managers, administrators and executives on the committee.
If you *really* wanted to help, tell the government to quit taking your fu@#%$! taxes and you could then find toothbrushes and toothpaste on sale at the local pharmacy and buy some up in bulk - heck, maybe even get bonus rewards for doing so (charity can pay off, sometimes) and go take them to a shelter.
If you *really* wanted to help, you'd get up off your butt and do it. You wouldn't sit around and talk about what the GOVERNMENT should do to help all those poor suffering waifs.
Seriously, why in the heck does this thing keep appearing under my feet???!?!?
<steps down from soapbox>
Being disabled, I don't have many physical opportunities; to help others but I do do my best; to earn my keep/save taxpayers money. My apartment complex's management volunteered to make 200 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, for the homeless; last month & since I was well enough to help, with that at that time; I did. I also don't collect every benefit, that I am entitled to either. I pay regular bus fare; instead of the reduced fare for the disabled. I'm also registered to be an organ donor, when I die. Unfortunately I am not healthy enough to recover well, while alive; to donate blood/organs. Even my purpose for being here is to make someone else's job easier to do, when I'm no longer able to physically care for myself; by hopefully becoming the lowest healthiest weight. So that I'll be lighter to maneuver/lift, even if I dislike what I'd look like; at that weight. If people didn't help at soup kitchens, there wouldn't be any; it's just that not enough do. Yeah much of the lack, of help's by choice but not all of it, some're just unable.1 -
DeficitDuchess wrote: »Being disabled, I don't have many physical opportunities; to help others but I do do my best; to earn my keep/save taxpayers money. My apartment complex's management volunteered to make 200 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, for the homeless; last month & since I was well enough to help, with that at that time; I did. I also don't collect every benefit, that I am entitled to either. I pay regular bus fare; instead of the reduced fare for the disabled. I'm also registered to be an organ donor, when I die. Unfortunately I am not healthy enough to recover well, while alive; to donate blood/organs. Even my purpose for being here is to make someone else's job easier to do, when I'm no longer able to physically care for myself; by hopefully becoming the lowest healthiest weight. So that I'll be lighter to maneuver/lift, even if I dislike what I'd look like; at that weight. If people didn't help at soup kitchens, there wouldn't be any; it's just that not enough do. Yeah much of the lack, of help's by choice but not all of it, some're just unable.
As someone who's physically disabled, I hear you. They're in the process of (hopefully) fixing my back so I can lead a normal life after 28 years of agony.
I'm glad to hear you volunteer and honestly - please *do* take every benefit you can right now - there are plenty who bilk the system and I'd rather my taxes go to someone who's actually in need rather than to someone who's figured out how to get food stamps and trade them in for actual cash at $.75 on the dollar, or for people who take their 2-6 kids to every food pantry in the town/city they live in and get truckloads of groceries, only to turn around and sell them "cheap" to their neighbors for - you guessed it, more food stamps that they can then trade in for real cash at a shady store.
My comment earlier wasn't directed at you - it was to everyone who wants to raise more taxes to "help others". That doesn't help others. It makes for a bigger, bloated government that has more power and authority than it should have and the value it offers is a feel-good moment for people too damned lazy or apathetic to actually help *solve* the problem, but still want to ease their guilty conscious because they think that making good money makes them bad people.
By the way - it doesn't. It just makes them people. What makes them bad people is when they do something that is morally or ethically wrong - like raising *everyone's* taxes, because they feel guilty for making money.
Which cracks me up as well, since most of those types usually have decent accountants so they pay the LEAST amount of taxes anyhow, when in reality if they really wanted to practice what they preached and wanted *everyone* to do, they'd insist the government KEEP EVERY PENNY of their taxes and never look for a single deduction.
Furthermore I...okay seriously people. Who's doing this?
<steps down from soapbox>1 -
kanebrewer88 wrote: »
haha! well the average recommended is 2000-2500 depending on size/sex? make it simple, if its 1000 calories, up the price.
Pizza was just an example. Ready Meals in general in the UK are packed full of salt and sugar which if not moderated can attribute heart problems & diabetes. The time vs putting a Ready Meal in the oven, vs defrosting and cooking vegetables, meat, sauces, is vastly different. Obviously the latter is preferable.
makes sense
er yeah sure, but idk about the US but here we've been educating people for two decades, both in schools and Media. And the problem only gets worse, caused by a sedentary lifestyle and a careless diet.
Make it more expensive. I dont see how thats a problem. When you walk into a supermarket in the UK, the first thing you see is 5 donuts for a pound, jumbo packet of crisps for a quid. Then you get to fruit and veg and its more or less the same price for a pack of leeks, bag of apples. Make the junk food more expensive and the healthy food cheaper, bottles of pop especcially, they are calorific!! and I watch family wheel and waddle this stuff out by the 6 pack. Drink *kitten* fizzy water with squash in it!!!! not 2 liters of full fat coca cola!!
I dont think this is the final solution to the problem, but it would help.
Sugar doesn't cause diabetes. Salt doesn't cause heart problems. High levels of both can exacerbate fairly common health problems, but so can potassium and protein (kidney). People need to be responsible for managing their own conditions.
There are frozen items in the US and I presume the UK where the only ingredient is the vegetable, or the fruit, or the meat, or the fish that is frozen. It is no less convenient to bake a frozen pizza than it is to bake a frozen fish fillet and frozen broccoli (as an example). As I said, it is not just about convenience.
Make 'junk' food more expensive, and people who overeat that will simply overeat something that is not classified as 'junk'. Frankly, around here the 'junk' food you're talking about is already more expensive than a good bit of the fresh produce per serving (and much more expensive than frozen), and you get more volume to eat in a serving of produce. Difference that makes? Not enough to prevent a lot of people from becoming obese.
Please do not try to tell me that the importance is price per calorie - if that were the issue, these people who are so concerned about their money would not be overweight and would not be part of the problem because they'd be limiting their intake to maintenance or less in an effort to conserve funds.2 -
What's the debate here? Junk food is already taxed. It's a food tax.1
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The proposal (not mine) is that junk food (however defined) should be subject to an additional tax like alcohol or cigarettes or (in some places) prepared foods/restaurant foods.
I'm not aware of a "food tax," but some places exempt food (or many foods) from sales tax and some do not but have lower levels of tax. And some don't. But the proposal is an additional tax.1 -
It is the financial management skills of those who spend any taxes collected that concerns me after having watched their results for the past 40 years.3
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Oh, is this now a general political thread?0
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No0
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No. Taxes are ridiculous and go to unnecessary things as it is. We don't need to be giving the government more excuses to tax us.1
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Hopefully not
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jen_mccusker wrote: »Yes put tax on sugar products eg chocolate, fizzy juice etc. We as adults chose for ourselves what to eat but when doin shopping mums n dads have budgets they are goin to pick the cheaper stuff to feed their kids not there fault the food with high saturated fat etc is what is cheaper in supermarkets. It's sad day when bar of chocolate is cheaper than a bunch of apples. If a mum or dad gives kid 50p for shop there's nothing to buy healthy at that price for that price so they buy a sweetie instead. And it may cut down on over weight adults and kids.
Do you have some price examples showing a lower cost for a bar of chocolate vs a bunch of apples? Even if it is, is that really a valid comparison? If I buy a bunch of apples, I am buying fruit for my kids lunch for the week. If I am buying a chocolate bar, I am not expecting it to last more than one sitting. Therefore I expect to pay more for multiple servings of any food.
A more appropriate comparison would be if you had an example showing a single chocolate bar cheaper than a single apple.
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WinoGelato wrote: »
Do you have some price examples showing a lower cost for a bar of chocolate vs a bunch of apples? Even if it is, is that really a valid comparison? If I buy a bunch of apples, I am buying fruit for my kids lunch for the week. If I am buying a chocolate bar, I am not expecting it to last more than one sitting. Therefore I expect to pay more for multiple servings of any food.
A more appropriate comparison would be if you had an example showing a single chocolate bar cheaper than a single apple.
It depends how large the chocolate bar is, whether I (not the Nutrition Facts) determine; if it's just 1 serving or not!0 -
DeficitDuchess wrote: »
It depends how large the chocolate bar is, whether I (not the Nutrition Facts) determine; if it's just 1 serving or not!
While I agree that a chocolate bar may ultimately be divided into more than one serving (I often buy expensive dark chocolate bars with exotic flavors and break off a piece at a time to enjoy with my wine over several days), the comparison is still not apples to apples (pun intended).2 -
Okay that was, the best ever intended pun!1
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1 lb. Apples ~1.18 USD
1 lb. Cocoa (unrefined) ~1.50 USD
1 lb. Hershey's Chocolate (I went cheap) ~47.90 USD
Next...3 -
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WinoGelato wrote: »
Forty eight dollars?
I found another one on Amazon for 35 USD, hope it's not used.0 -
I found another one on Amazon for 35 USD, hope it's not used.
Wow. Well, there you go. I thought I must be misreading...
This is in the UK?0 -
I found another one on Amazon for 35 USD, hope it's not used.
Uh...
A 6 pack of 1.55oz bars is $3.16 at Wal-Mart, so 1 lb would be $5.44. I've bought bars of chocolate that would go for $48/lb, but they're a lot more awesome than Hershey's
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California tried this about 10-15 years ago and it was a disaster. They essentially said that sales tax had to be paid on "snacks" but not "food". If you bought a Hershey milk chocolate bar at the checkout counter it was taxable but if you bought a Hershey's milk chocolate BAKING bar it wasn't taxable. Then, various groups of people argued over what and wasn't a "snack". For example, granola bars were breakfast for some people but snacks for others. They finally dropped the whole thing because it was logistically impossible to enforce.0
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WinoGelato wrote: »
Yes - US distribution - price online varies between 25-55 USD.0
This discussion has been closed.
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