"Tax The Fat"

[DerBear]

In Scotland many times this debate has came about. This was also brought up in a panorama program as well

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00w4dsy/Panorama_Tax_the_Fat/ (link to vid)

If we were to "Tax the Fat" we would increase the cost of products such as chocolate, crisps and other fating foods by up to 25% maybe even more.

This would benefit the nation’s health as a whole. But many have said that low income and poverty families would suffer as they tend to eat unhealthier.

What do you guys think should we "Tax the Fat" also this has been proved to work on the matter of smoking as Scotland and many other countries increased the price of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

So do you guys think we should "Tax the Fat"?? Give your view and thoughts here.

[SosbanFach]

http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=117207

Would that be relevant?

[mike3_1]

I agree with it. There's too many obese people and we need to help them start loosing weight. Just like the muslims have mandatory prayer service like 5 times a day, we (America) should have a mandatory workout session like 3 times a day.

[Bath]

I don't really agree with it. There's tons of other factors to obesity, not just the junk food. Also, they would need to make rules, and draw the line to what is unhealthy, and what is not, and it would be majorly difficult to draw that line.

Besides, if you're obese due to bad eating, that's your fault. Your country shouldn't have to look after you like your mommy when it comes to that. It's only affecting you... besides, it probably wouldn't help in the long run. People who eat as much as they do to get to that weight will find ways to just keep eating like that. You need determination to lose weight.

[huginnmuninn]

If a country is giving free health care and someone from that country is doing something that is making them unhealthy then yes i would say its ok to tax the stuff that is making people unhealthy. Since obesity causes people to be less healthy then in the countries that give free health care i dont see any problems taxing foods that have only a little healthy properties but have a lot of fat or other unhealthy stuff.

[Jess]

I don't really agree with it. There's tons of other factors to obesity, not just the junk food. Also, they would need to make rules, and draw the line to what is unhealthy, and what is not, and it would be majorly difficult to draw that line.

Besides, if you're obese due to bad eating, that's your fault. Your country shouldn't have to look after you like your mommy when it comes to that. It's only affecting you... besides, it probably wouldn't help in the long run. People who eat as much as they do to get to that weight will find ways to just keep eating like that. You need determination to lose weight.

this


and on a side note, isn't chocolate supposed to be good for you?

[Bath]

this


and on a side note, isn't chocolate supposed to be good for you?

Yep. Everything is ok sparingly. It's when people don't know when to stop.
Like, what if someone wanted a bag of chips but if was deemed "unhealthy", and taxed more? That's not fair.

[Unique Physique]

Except it wouldn't work, and only the majority whom are not overweight would suffer. Junk food isn't exactly cheap as it is. Taxing alcohol doesn't stop alcoholics, taxing cigarettes doesn't stop smoking, making most substances fully illegal doesn't stop people using them, etc.

I believe in many cases (especially in childhood and adolescence) obesity is directly or indirectly caused by psychological problems like depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, trauma, etc. which can cause a person to go into a "shell" and end up eating more and exercising less, this happened to me during secondary school. I was badly bullied from 13/14, "coped" by staying indoors on the computer and in the library, stopped swimming and running regularly and started binging on shite after school. I also suffered a traumatic event near the end of 2009, which lead to me get even worse.

One way to help obesity I suppose is to treat it as an addiction/mental health problem. Like better coping strategies, etc. Not national campaigns against fat people or stupid rubbish like this.

[TheMatrix]

I sort of agree with this. I mean, yes it encourages people to eat healthier, but at the same time, healthy food is a lot more expensive.

I agree with it. There's too many obese people and we need to help them start loosing weight. Just like the muslims have mandatory prayer service like 5 times a day, we (America) should have a mandatory workout session like 3 times a day.
Wrong analogy. Those have absolutely nothing to do with each other!
And besides, most people do not have the time or ability to do this.

[Amnesiac]

Talking about the United States only, no, there shouldn't be a fat tax. The U.S. does not operate a publicly funded universal healthcare system. A large number of Americans pay for their own insurance, and do not receive government benefits. Taxing them to cover the so-called "cost to society" would be unfair and detrimental to the economy. Only those who participate in a socialized healthcare system should be taxed – that applies to every country – and those who remain independent of society's benefits shouldn't have to pay for society's problems.

Now, for the socio-political aspect of it:

I agree with it. There's too many obese people and we need to help them start loosing weight. Just like the muslims have mandatory prayer service like 5 times a day, we (America) should have a mandatory workout session like 3 times a day.

No. It's shouldn't be within the government's power to tell citizens what kind of lifestyle they should have. If someone wants to be a fatass, let them. However, if they're going to waste taxpayer money on their health problems, they should be taxed for it. But still, if someone isn't part of a public healthcare system, and they want to eat fucking cheesecake all day, who is the government to deny them that right? If these people don't want to be helped, they shouldn't be helped.

[Amaryllis]

I don't think they should. It's their choice. Some people find pleasure in eating whatever the hell they want and if that's what they wanna do, they should be able to. Without having to pay tons extra. Anyway, I think nowadays in society, people focus way too much on weight, especially being "fat". The number of anorexics and orthorexics are rising. My obsession with food and healthy eating turned into orthorexia. And guess what, people encouraged me to cut out junk and eat healthy. Until I became a skeleton. Then they asked me to eat whatever the hell I wanted.

If people would rather be overweight than to lose food, because a lot of people do love food, that's their choice. Let it be. Weight isn't everything. You're as or more likely to suffer from car accidents and being punched in the face.

[DerBear]

I am looking at this from both angles because I am not going to say this is the worst idea but nor is it much or a strong sulotuion

For the UK atleast we have the NHS and majority of the population are with the NHS now when they raised taxes on ciggerets it cut down the number of lung cancer reports and other smoking related ilnesses, I think if we did the same we could cut down even if it just a small percentage that benfits, also the NHS auto benfits from this and they can focus there money on other important things.

The major downside to this as people like me who dont eat junkfood or people who eat it in moderate ammounts then auto suffer because the price.

I think a good soloution would be to raise it slightly and lower healthy food down completley therefore creating a balance

Its better than doing nothing

[Sporadica]

I am against it. Mainly because I'm conservative in taxing products sense.

Also who is going to decide what is health and not healthy? I don't think something like this can be divided to being 1 MUST be this way and the other MUST be this way there is no in between.

I like the term fat and happy

I'm fat and happy with it, I like to eat bad, I was a picky eater growing up but that's starting to change, I am cooking more by myself and for myself and I am less picky about vegetables because there are better ways of preparing them that make them actually taste good. I also believe people should be able to eat what they please and that only GST (sales tax) (not sure what Scotland calls it) should be put on "unhealthy" foods

So yes I'm against it and there's my 2 cents