goldfish21
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14 Jun 2018, 11:30 am
Bring on the sugar tax & make it higher!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.lostonearth35
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Age: 52
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Posts: 13,900
Location: On a planet where I don't belong.
14 Jun 2018, 11:37 am
I agree with the OP completely. The problem here is that people NEED food to survive, and most food contains some kind of sugar. People can survive perfectly fine without alcohol or gambling or smoking, but they'll never ban those things ever, it's only sugar that's bad and evil. I don't drink or smoke, so if I didn't touch sugar what would I be then, perfect? 
And what about salt? Oh I'd better not mention that or there will be taxes on it as well, if there aren't already. What a stupid world, nothing makes sense.
14 Jun 2018, 11:39 am
goldfish21
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Joined: 17 Feb 2013
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
14 Jun 2018, 11:45 am
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
Bring on the sugar tax & make it higher!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
In those olden days, sugar came mostly from sugar cane. It took a lot of sugar cane to make commercially viable quantities of sugar, and it had to be processed in a sugar mill. This took lots of time and labor.
Now most sucrose (white table sugar) comes from beets that have been specially breed for high sugar content. They are easy to grow and harvest and process. Most of the sugar in the US is actually fructose, made from corn, again specially breed for high sugar content. Easy to grow and harvest with the tech of modern agriculture.
The farmers who grow this corn are well connected in the US Congress and have put this crap in all our food. I don't like it, but I also don't like your liberal facist attitude toward it either. I believe all vice taxes should be abolished and the people should be allowed to choose these things for themselves. I would also like to lift the bans on nearly all drugs too.
If you lived in a country with socialized healthcare (which I value) then you'd probably have a different attitude towards others' unhealthy habits. "Tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I behave," sort of thing comes into play. When other people are unhealthy and it costs me money, I want them to be healthier so I pay lower taxes. If it were truly every man for himself, then go ahead and eat sugar until your gut ruptures for all I care. But when other people's unhealthy lifestyles mean I have to work harder, earn more, and pay higher taxes then yeah - I think I have a right to express my opinion that sin taxes are a good thing & people who choose those unhealthy diets should have to bear all the costs of doing so.
I also believe that drugs should be legalized. Most recreational drugs are not terribly unhealthy and don't cost society tons of money. Portugal has the right attitude towards it. They decriminalized all drugs over a decade ago, and they educate their population about their safe use and effects etc, which has resulted in lower drug use & related problems, not more.
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.14 Jun 2018, 12:18 pm
goldfish21
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Age: 43
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
14 Jun 2018, 12:42 pm
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
Bring on the sugar tax & make it higher!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
In those olden days, sugar came mostly from sugar cane. It took a lot of sugar cane to make commercially viable quantities of sugar, and it had to be processed in a sugar mill. This took lots of time and labor.
Now most sucrose (white table sugar) comes from beets that have been specially breed for high sugar content. They are easy to grow and harvest and process. Most of the sugar in the US is actually fructose, made from corn, again specially breed for high sugar content. Easy to grow and harvest with the tech of modern agriculture.
The farmers who grow this corn are well connected in the US Congress and have put this crap in all our food. I don't like it, but I also don't like your liberal facist attitude toward it either. I believe all vice taxes should be abolished and the people should be allowed to choose these things for themselves. I would also like to lift the bans on nearly all drugs too.
If you lived in a country with socialized healthcare (which I value) then you'd probably have a different attitude towards others' unhealthy habits. "Tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I behave," sort of thing comes into play. When other people are unhealthy and it costs me money, I want them to be healthier so I pay lower taxes. If it were truly every man for himself, then go ahead and eat sugar until your gut ruptures for all I care. But when other people's unhealthy lifestyles mean I have to work harder, earn more, and pay higher taxes then yeah - I think I have a right to express my opinion that sin taxes are a good thing & people who choose those unhealthy diets should have to bear all the costs of doing so.
I also believe that drugs should be legalized. Most recreational drugs are not terribly unhealthy and don't cost society tons of money. Portugal has the right attitude towards it. They decriminalized all drugs over a decade ago, and they educate their population about their safe use and effects etc, which has resulted in lower drug use & related problems, not more.
Perhaps you are right, but the USA will unfortunately never have a socialized health care system like Canada or the UK. We are to busy spending that money on maintaining an aging and useless nuclear arsenal.
Although I think ten dollars a can for soda is outrageous and that will never fly in the US. Nobody running under that platform would stand any chance of getting elected anywhere in the US.
I live in a sugar beet producing state. North Dakota is second only to Minnesota in terms of dollar value of their production, and they are very important here in terms of jobs and livelihood. Tell these people you want to make sugar $100 dollars for a one pound bag and you would probably be shot.
"Tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I'll behave," still applies. When farmers can't make money growing food & can only survive by growing opium poppies, they grow opium poppies. Supply & demand. If GMO corn & sugar beets were no longer subsidized/profitable, farmers would simply plant whatever crop was profitable. Ideally they'd switch to the most valuable crop known to man for more than 5,000 years; hemp. But guaranteed if they can't make money growing sugar, they'll grow something else. That's what farmers do.
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.14 Jun 2018, 1:04 pm
goldfish21
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Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 43
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Posts: 22,612
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
14 Jun 2018, 1:17 pm
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
Bring on the sugar tax & make it higher!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
Pop should be $10 a can.
Sugar used to be an exotic spice enjoyed by royalty.. now it's in everything, along with salt & fat, and it makes people very unhealthy in the amounts they typically consume. Besides that, it's VERY expensive in terms of both healthcare and lost productivity. Those who eat far more sugar than they should should be made to pay for the costs of doing so via hefty taxes just like those who choose to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Sin taxes aren't just in place to tell you how to live. They're in place to help pay for the way you choose to live. Choose an unhealthy path? Pay for it!
In those olden days, sugar came mostly from sugar cane. It took a lot of sugar cane to make commercially viable quantities of sugar, and it had to be processed in a sugar mill. This took lots of time and labor.
Now most sucrose (white table sugar) comes from beets that have been specially breed for high sugar content. They are easy to grow and harvest and process. Most of the sugar in the US is actually fructose, made from corn, again specially breed for high sugar content. Easy to grow and harvest with the tech of modern agriculture.
The farmers who grow this corn are well connected in the US Congress and have put this crap in all our food. I don't like it, but I also don't like your liberal facist attitude toward it either. I believe all vice taxes should be abolished and the people should be allowed to choose these things for themselves. I would also like to lift the bans on nearly all drugs too.
If you lived in a country with socialized healthcare (which I value) then you'd probably have a different attitude towards others' unhealthy habits. "Tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I behave," sort of thing comes into play. When other people are unhealthy and it costs me money, I want them to be healthier so I pay lower taxes. If it were truly every man for himself, then go ahead and eat sugar until your gut ruptures for all I care. But when other people's unhealthy lifestyles mean I have to work harder, earn more, and pay higher taxes then yeah - I think I have a right to express my opinion that sin taxes are a good thing & people who choose those unhealthy diets should have to bear all the costs of doing so.
I also believe that drugs should be legalized. Most recreational drugs are not terribly unhealthy and don't cost society tons of money. Portugal has the right attitude towards it. They decriminalized all drugs over a decade ago, and they educate their population about their safe use and effects etc, which has resulted in lower drug use & related problems, not more.
Perhaps you are right, but the USA will unfortunately never have a socialized health care system like Canada or the UK. We are to busy spending that money on maintaining an aging and useless nuclear arsenal.
Although I think ten dollars a can for soda is outrageous and that will never fly in the US. Nobody running under that platform would stand any chance of getting elected anywhere in the US.
I live in a sugar beet producing state. North Dakota is second only to Minnesota in terms of dollar value of their production, and they are very important here in terms of jobs and livelihood. Tell these people you want to make sugar $100 dollars for a one pound bag and you would probably be shot.
"Tell me how I'm measured and I'll show you how I'll behave," still applies. When farmers can't make money growing food & can only survive by growing opium poppies, they grow opium poppies. Supply & demand. If GMO corn & sugar beets were no longer subsidized/profitable, farmers would simply plant whatever crop was profitable. Ideally they'd switch to the most valuable crop known to man for more than 5,000 years; hemp. But guaranteed if they can't make money growing sugar, they'll grow something else. That's what farmers do.
Well, in the US upper Midwest and Northern Great Plains, you have a long cold winter and a very short growing season. This limits what you can grow, and sugar beets are a crop that you can produce under these conditions. They grow them because there is a good market for them and because they don't have many other options.
If that were the whole truth then we wouldn't be able to grow such a variety of crops all across Canada.. yet here we are, growing far more than sugar beets.
Farmers will grow whatever they can make money growing. Period. If they could make money growing something else, they'd plant a different crop.
Yes, certain regions are more suitable to certain crops, but I guarantee that more than just sugar beets would grow there. It's all a matter of what they can sell.
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.
14 Jun 2018, 1:17 pm
14 Jun 2018, 1:23 pm
14 Jun 2018, 1:24 pm
goldfish21
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Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
14 Jun 2018, 1:57 pm
RainbowUnion wrote:
Certainly, and in the US they can sell the hell out of sugar. That will always be the case.
Which is very sad, because it contributes to the lack of physical & mental health of so many Americans.
There's still hope for those who decide to change themselves & realize that you are what you eat. Maybe it'll become a cultural phenomenon in the USA for people to shed their many extra pounds and become fitter, happier, healthier.. and put this dark period behind them.
..probably not, though, in which case each individual self sabotaging person truly deserves what they do to themselves.
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.14 Jun 2018, 2:03 pm
goldfish21
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Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 22,612
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
14 Jun 2018, 2:05 pm
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
RainbowUnion wrote:
Certainly, and in the US they can sell the hell out of sugar. That will always be the case.
Which is very sad, because it contributes to the lack of physical & mental health of so many Americans.
There's still hope for those who decide to change themselves & realize that you are what you eat. Maybe it'll become a cultural phenomenon in the USA for people to shed their many extra pounds and become fitter, happier, healthier.. and put this dark period behind them.
..probably not, though, in which case each individual self sabotaging person truly deserves what they do to themselves.
I don't disagree, but I also don't think the government should step in and force people to do the "right thing".
But isn't that precisely the role of government? Isn't that why we elect officials to make decisions on the "right thing," that we as a society should do?
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.14 Jun 2018, 2:13 pm
goldfish21
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Joined: 17 Feb 2013
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 22,612
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
14 Jun 2018, 2:20 pm
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
RainbowUnion wrote:
goldfish21 wrote:
RainbowUnion wrote:
Certainly, and in the US they can sell the hell out of sugar. That will always be the case.
Which is very sad, because it contributes to the lack of physical & mental health of so many Americans.
There's still hope for those who decide to change themselves & realize that you are what you eat. Maybe it'll become a cultural phenomenon in the USA for people to shed their many extra pounds and become fitter, happier, healthier.. and put this dark period behind them.
..probably not, though, in which case each individual self sabotaging person truly deserves what they do to themselves.
I don't disagree, but I also don't think the government should step in and force people to do the "right thing".
But isn't that precisely the role of government? Isn't that why we elect officials to make decisions on the "right thing," that we as a society should do?
No. At least not IMO. The law should exist to protect you from fraud and violence. The rest should be up to you.
Except that's not how we've formed our societies & laws. So, there's that.
IMO Americans should be PISSED that their elected officials are doing things like handing profits to farmers for producing unhealthy foods that only serve to harm the population's health, as government is not performing their job properly by not making the right decisions they were employed to make.
_________________
No
for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.
