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by Factotum on October 30th, 2009
I strongly disagree. First, a quote:
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'Whenever someone says that this or that government program is absolutely necessary, I always wonder, "What did people do and how did they survive before the program?"' - Economist Walter Williams
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We've been drinking soda pop for over a hundred and thirty years. Yeah, we got fat kids but there is no justification for blaming it on soda. Or fast food.
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People who take in more fat or carbohydrates or sugars than they burn off become fat. People who are fat (with some few exceptions) are putting things in their mouths that they know they shouldn't. When babies do this with pennies, buttons, broken glass, dog poop, etc, we take whatever it is out of their mouths as quickly as possible and try as hard as we can to let them know that that was a bad thing to try to eat.
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We're not babies anymore. We don't need a ten cent spanking from the government every time we open a juice box.
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The argument that it's only ten cents is completely unconvincing. It is in fact an additional ten cents on top of sales tax, sugar protectionism policies and various taxes on production and distribution.
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The 'only ten cents' idea is applicable to all things after all. Why shouldn't everything you purchase or use have an additional 'only ten cents' tax on it?
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Because there is no justification for dropping taxes on legal items to try to force the public not to do something it wants to. That's not government's job. That's YOUR job. You want to self-flagellate every time you eat a twinkie? Go for it. But be responsible for your intake. You're old enough now.
How much money is in a roll of dimes?
by Answerbag Staff on March 9th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
How many dimes will it take to fill up a 5-gallon jug?
by Answerbag Staff on July 25th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
What year did they stop making silver dimes?
by Answerbag Staff on July 20th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
I have a 1927 mercury dime that is minted with a w. someone told me this is rare? is that true? it is a worn coin.
by Sara_W on January 23rd, 2011
| 1 person likes this
Is my 1943 Roosevelt dime counterfeit?
by aingeru on November 16th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
You're reading Pathetic,,,if we can't handle 10 cents tax on pop,maybe we shouldn't be drinking it to begin with,,agree or not?
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Comments
Good commentary,I am impressed,,truly.
by mtndewman44 on October 30th, 2009
Really? I thought it was a little high on the rant side.
by Factotum on October 30th, 2009
No way,,,educated....I like a good commentary like that,good job!
by mtndewman44 on October 30th, 2009
ty :)
by Factotum on October 30th, 2009
I don't agree. The government should try to help keep their population safe and healthy. Trying to protect them from things that are not to their best interest. Taxing is one way of doing it. And, why should we tax everything because of the problems caused by one thing.
You say we have been drinking soda pop for one hundred and thirty years. This may be true but during most of those years it wasn’t marketed like it is now and there wasn’t the multitude of varieties available to us now. When I was growing up there was little of it available.
The entire food industry is responsible for much of the obesity in the US. With processed foods that trigger our bodies to want more of the same. They’ve spent untold millions determining how they can make more money by making their food more addictive. Processed foods sell best if they contain sugar, fat, and salt. It addicts our bodies to that food. The health of the nation is not their prime consideration. Profit is. One of the reasons people are getting fat now is because of the processed food they eat.
by mrrw on October 30th, 2009
You've not said why the government should try to help keep their population safe and healthy. But I'll help. Selling diseased or poisoned food is a crime and a harm to people. Government is right to prosecute such sales and arguably right in monitoring the sale of food to ensure that it is not poisoned or diseased - to protect consumers against fraud.
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Years ago people worried about nutrition so the government mandated that every food in a container be labeled with the nutritional value of the contents therein, including 'serving size'. The information free citizens need to make a determination on the value of a food is now printed right on the packaging. Pretty handy, no?
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But we got fatter anyway.
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The reason we're fatter by the way, isn't because of soft drinks or hard candies or all-you-can-eat buffets. It's because we don't build exercise into our lives. We keep our kids 'safe' indoors. We let them snack. We watch tv. We sit on our asses and post on answerbag.
by Factotum on October 30th, 2009
Calling food 'addictive' is dishonest unless we also agree that water and oxygen are addictive.
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As far as for Machiavellian food corporations making especially addicting food that insidiously plays on our tastebuds and atavistic desire for fat...well, so did your mom. She called it 'meatloaf' and it was damn tasty.
by Factotum on October 30th, 2009
Mom never used partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Mom never used maltodextrin. (short chained starch sugar)
Mom never heard of modified food starch. (another sugar)
Mom never used high fructose corn syrup.
She didn't have modified corn starch either.
They didn't know a trans-fat from short chained sugar.
She had meat, vegetables, and fruits. Also, a big garden.
Food as such of course is not addictive even though we can't live without it. However, with certain foods such as fats, sugars, salt, et. al., when used in foods, do indeed make one crave for more. You can't eat just one sort of thing.
by mrrw on October 30th, 2009
After Googling addictive foods, I was inundated with up to date studies regarding food addiction and the food industries additives which encourage their consumption. Try it.
by mrrw on October 30th, 2009
I did. There is nothing solid out there. We need more study and if we find harmful things in the food obviously we should ban it.
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But only after we are SURE. Otherwise we're just screwing with businesses which is a gross misuse of government.
by Factotum on October 31st, 2009
There are people with blinders on.
by mrrw on October 31st, 2009