Its cheaper to feed kids Fruit Loops than fruit.

[Winehole23]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...ood-costs.html

[coyotes_geek]

People who eat badly should be taxed more for it.

If we're going to accept the premise that we are all suffering from high medical costs and that something must be done about it, wouldn't it stand to reason to target a behavior that directly leads to increased medical costs? If anything, it's a "users fee".

This is where you thinking dovetails with WC, btw.

Lib !

It's a tough question to me. I hate seeing McDonald's able to advertise to kids and get them hooked on a lifetime of toxic junk food like fries and cokes by bribing them with toys and bombarding them with friendly cartoon characters and the like. I guess I agree with San Francisco's decision to kill the toys in Happy Meals, since a child can't realistically be expected to make decisions for his own good. Otherwise, why not let kids drink, why not let them smoke, why not let them drive, why not let them have sex with adults, and so on?

On the other hand, I hate the idea of a sin tax. That just opens the floodgates to people who want to screw me over if I want to buy a 6-pack of beer or an occasional bag of weed. I'd be happy if we just ended the subsidization and didn't give such a compe ive advantage to processed junk food in our stores. If you don't have good money it's pretty easy to go to Wendy's or Taco Bell to feed your kids than to pay for non-subsidized produce and meats. We shouldn't be actively pushing people towards this garbage.

I'm not a fan of sin taxes either. That being said, I don't think there's any arguement we would all benefit if we as a nation got healthier, both health-wise and financially. So, IMO at least, it would be worth it.

[ohmwrecker]

Who pays sales tax on weed?

[Winehole23]

If we're going to accept the premise that we are all suffering from high medical costs and that something must be done about it, wouldn't it stand to reason to target a behavior that directly leads to increased medical costs? If anything, it's a "users fee".

Insofar as the target of the the fee is a well-defined social miscreant it might go over well.

[Spurminator]

I don't really like the idea of taxing fast food, but if we did I'd want to make sure those funds went directly back to the people in the form of some kind of healthy lifestyle subsidy. Gym membership credits? Children's athletic leagues?

[Winehole23]

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2...ndustry-burger

[Blake]

Can you expand on this?

Was just joking.

Kids jumping from mcdonald toys to cigarettes made me lol.

[LnGrrrR]

Fruit and vegetables are cheap. People are just lazy. Plain and simple. My kid eats fruit and vegetables. We don't buy sugar cereal, soda pop, processed foods and he doesn't want any of it. If that means I have to make a few mini trips to the market in addition to the big grocery trip for fresh fruit, then I'll do it. If you don't care about your own health, that's on you, but people who can't help their kids make good, healthy choices make me sick.

Fruits and veggies may be cheap relatively speaking, but they are more expensive than unhealthier foods, and have a shorter shelf-life.

And your plan might not be valid in a rural area; heck up until a few years back my folks would have to drive an hour or so away to go grocery shopping.

[Drachen]

bull .

that doesn't rot

if it don't rot, don't eat it.

if man made it, don't eat it.

Im a man, I made some chili this weekend, and I ate a ton of it.... because I don't want it to rot. LOL

[boutons_deux]

fresh food is definitely more expensive than dead food, calorie for calorie.

That's why poor people eat that industrial food-like . It's very cheap, filling, delicious heavily engineered calories. And the poor have more diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, get sicker and die younger than the upper 3 quintiles. Death by a 1000 mouthfuls.

[sickdsm]

The solution is to raise cheap food prices to match fruits and veggies.



Seriously thought, think about it. The US has had the cheapest, most abundant supply of food in the world for how many years? We spend fractions of our paycheck on food than other countries do.


baseline bum: You seem very misinformed. You seem to imply that corn is to blame for poor food. Do you really think if corn was gone you wouldn't have cane sugar/sugar beet sweetner added? You DO realize its the same thing, right?

[sickdsm]

Big Win for Biotech: USDA Deregulates Monsanto Alfalfa

After nearly five years of legal and regulatory battles, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has fully deregulated Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa that is genetically modified (GM) to be resistant to Roundup herbicide.

The decision squashed a proposed compromise between the biotech industry and its opponents that would have placed geographic restrictions on Roundup Ready alfalfa to prevent organic and traditional alfalfa from being contaminated by herbicide sprays and transgenes spread by cross-pollination and other factors.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that Roundup Ready alfalfa would be fully deregulated on January 27, just one week after he testified before the House Committee on Agriculture, where committee members pressed Vilsack to fully deregulate Roundup Ready alfalfa and reject the proposal to geographically isolate it from traditional alfalfa.

http://www.truth-out.org/print/67373

==========

America is so ed, and un able.

RR alfalfa has been around for a long time you idiot. Quit bringing some lame ass article into this. RR Alf was ok'd years ago, they took it off the market but the fields that were planted were grandfathered in.

You're ten years late to this argument.

[sickdsm]

if unhealthy food costs more than healthy food, you can't just simply tax the unhealthy food..40 million americans are already on food stamps as it is, nobody would be able to afford to eat. the solution is coming up with better farming technology and restoring our economy back where people can actually afford food.

NOOOOO! God forbid we advance beyond taking a hoe and burying a fish under each corn and soybean plant.

Plus, boutons wouldn't want the rural people to improve their economy.

restoring our economy back where people can actually afford food



Cheapest food in the world, somethings wrong if you can't afford it.

[Winehole23]

The solution is to raise cheap food prices to match fruits and veggies.

In other words, the government should give natural foods a leg up by raising the price of junk food.

(So much for personal responsibility and the free market.)

[LnGrrrR]

Cheapest food in the world, somethings wrong if you can't afford it.

Well... that is the whole point of the thread, isn't it?

[LnGrrrR]

In other words, the government should give natural foods a leg up by raising the price of junk food.

(So much for personal responsibility and the free market.)

To be fair, if junk foods are getting a leg up through government handouts (ie. corn production), then it's leveling the playing field.

Of course, some of those corn subsidies are there to ensure that we will still have adequate amts of corn during a poor season, so it's certainly not black and white.

[MiamiHeat]

kinda funny how obese people were seen as wealthy, and skinny toned people were seen as poor throughout all of human history.

thats been reversed in the past 80 years lol. if you're in shape, chances are you got more money than the fatass who eats mcd's everyday.

[Winehole23]

@LNGR: It's a fair point, but what sickdsm was talking about sounded much more like price controls.

[MiamiHeat]

@LNGR: It's a fair point, but what sickdsm was talking about sounded much more like price controls.

what about granting farmers the same subsidies for growing fruits?

bring the price of both down?

[LnGrrrR]

@LNGR: It's a fair point, but what sickdsm was talking about sounded much more like price controls.

I can see that take. I don't think price controls are the way to go though. as others have said, reducing subsidies may be the key.

Of course, that would require an objective analysis of current subsidies and the amount they're used properly vs abused.

[baseline bum]

The solution is to raise cheap food prices to match fruits and veggies.



Seriously thought, think about it. The US has had the cheapest, most abundant supply of food in the world for how many years? We spend fractions of our paycheck on food than other countries do.


baseline bum: You seem very misinformed. You seem to imply that corn is to blame for poor food. Do you really think if corn was gone you wouldn't have cane sugar/sugar beet sweetner added? You DO realize its the same thing, right?

Corn is fine. Subsidizing it so that every single thing in the supermarket is loaded with corn syrup is ridiculous. Even ignoring the health effects, it tastes like .

[Winehole23]

@MH: I'd be more in favor of the US removing ag subsidies entirely, but that's me.

[DarrinS]

People have been eating Fruit Loops since the early 1960's. I'm surprised we're not all dead by now.

[ploto]

It is cheaper to cook fresh food at home than to buy out food anywhere. I see lots of people who claim to have no money going out to eat all the time.

I also see people with food stamps buying all kinds of processed pre-fab meals that are more expensive than buying a whole chicken and baking it.

I grew up in a large family and saw first hand the amount of people you can feed for not much when you actually cook every day. We ate meals with roast and fresh potatoes and carrots.

[coyotes_geek]

One would think bad health and an early death were bad enough.

Apparently, much akin to the notion of soaking the rich, those who are so unfortunate as to have suffered ill health according to their own choices, deserve to pay even more for the privilege.

I sympathize with the "free will" position, however, how do you reconcile that against a system where the one person exercizing his free will to choose an unhealthy lifestyle isn't the only one who has to suffer the financial consequences of his decision?

Insofar as the target of the the fee is a well-defined social miscreant it might go over well.

Not a social miscreant. Just someone engaging in a behavior likely to result in an avoidable expense to the healthcare system. Not much different than a car insurer charging teenage drivers more. It's not because they're social miscreants, it's because there's a higher probability that they're going to cause an expense that will ultimately be borne by the insurer/other insured.