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or just tax unhealhty food ... The proper place of government is to regulate markets, so that they deliver social good, not spiral into self-serving vortices.

or just tax unhealhty food ... The proper place of government is to regulate markets, so that they deliver social good, not spiral into self-serving vortices. Adam Smith said roughly this.

bitwize 8y ago
That's just the problem, innit -- if the taxation were applied according to FDA dietary recommendations, the wrong food would be taxed. Assuming that the government will make the problems with food go away with regulatory pressure relies on the assumption that the government is as enlightened about dietary needs as you are (or claim to be). In reality -- even absent the graft rampant in American politics -- that's not the case.
- jacknews 8y ago
  Well someone is going to decide the food environment. Should be it be private companies, who deliver the "tastiest" food, to maximize profit, or should it be government with their well-meaning but wrong pronouncements? Given we still don't know for sure what the health recommendations should be (which I think is largely why govt advice is wrong), I would plump (ahem) for well-meaning.
Frondo 8y ago
Not sure about that alleged proper place of government (it is, after all, the thing we're supposed to vigorously debate, not declare as a just-so thing), but I'm all on board with getting subsidies out of sugar, corn, beef, and all the other garbage we subsidize. Heck, if we're going to tax or subsidize anything, tax unhealthy food and subsidize the shit out of vegetables (and to a much less extent, fruits, so long as they're bound for market whole, and not just like oranges to be turned into juice). And subsidize fresh produce markets in food deserts. What we're doing now is the worst of all possible worlds, though. We subsidize the most environmentally destructive and health-destructive foods, with entirely predictable results.
toast0 8y ago
Taxing unhealthy food only works if the foods that the government decides are unhealthy are actually unhealthy, and they don't avoid declaring things unhealthy that are healthy. How many years has the us government been anti-fat, but ok with sugar; how well has that served us? Also, it presupposes that a food's healthiness is universal to all people.

or just tax unhealhty food ... The proper place of government is to regulate markets, so that they deliver social good, not spiral into self-serving vortices. Adam Smith said roughly this.

bitwize 8y ago

That's just the problem, innit -- if the taxation were applied according to FDA dietary recommendations, the wrong food would be taxed. Assuming that the government will make the problems with food go away with regulatory pressure relies on the assumption that the government is as enlightened about dietary needs as you are (or claim to be). In reality -- even absent the graft rampant in American politics -- that's not the case.

jacknews 8y ago
Well someone is going to decide the food environment. Should be it be private companies, who deliver the "tastiest" food, to maximize profit, or should it be government with their well-meaning but wrong pronouncements? Given we still don't know for sure what the health recommendations should be (which I think is largely why govt advice is wrong), I would plump (ahem) for well-meaning.

Frondo 8y ago

Not sure about that alleged proper place of government (it is, after all, the thing we're supposed to vigorously debate, not declare as a just-so thing), but I'm all on board with getting subsidies out of sugar, corn, beef, and all the other garbage we subsidize. Heck, if we're going to tax or subsidize anything, tax unhealthy food and subsidize the shit out of vegetables (and to a much less extent, fruits, so long as they're bound for market whole, and not just like oranges to be turned into juice). And subsidize fresh produce markets in food deserts. What we're doing now is the worst of all possible worlds, though. We subsidize the most environmentally destructive and health-destructive foods, with entirely predictable results.

toast0 8y ago

Taxing unhealthy food only works if the foods that the government decides are unhealthy are actually unhealthy, and they don't avoid declaring things unhealthy that are healthy. How many years has the us government been anti-fat, but ok with sugar; how well has that served us? Also, it presupposes that a food's healthiness is universal to all people.