4 ms·

Or just tax the original sugar production or importation and be done with all the complexity of chasing down a million food companies across thousands of jurisd

Or just tax the original sugar production or importation and be done with all the complexity of chasing down a million food companies across thousands of jurisdictions. (Or let people eat whatever they want and stop being a busybody.)

temporalparts 4y ago
Production is usually not within the jurisdiction of cities (as they are produced elsewhere and shipped there usually), so cities are limited in what they can do. As to busybody, excess sugar consumption is a public health problems that governments should intervene on, as I believe it is right for them to do in areas like tobacco.
- irrational 4y ago
  What about alcohol? They tax it, sure, but the tax isn’t high enough to discourage consumption. I’ve never heard of anyone getting in a car and killing people after consuming too much sugar.
  - wyre 4y ago
    After moving from Idaho (no liquor tax) to Washington (heavy liquor tax), the higher taxes certainly discourage my consumption, at least slightly
    - brewdad 4y ago
      It's been a while since I visited BC or Ontario but I recall their liquor and beer taxes led me to purchase less than I had originally planned. I live near the WA/OR border and only buy things in WA that are not available in OR.
  - vintermann 4y ago
    Alcohol taxes definitively reduces consumption, what makes you think it wouldn't? It's not one of the extremely rare Giffen goods which defy the laws of supply and demand. Most alcoholic drinks have a substitute in drinks with less (or no) alcohol in them, competing on price. Moreover, people's consumption is affected by how much is considered "normal" to drink (one of the early, solid findings of alcohol epidemiology), so there's a positive feedback amplifying small changes to consumption habits from other things.
    - yourusername 4y ago
      >Alcohol taxes definitively reduces consumption, what makes you think it wouldn't? In countries where the alcohol tax is high enough it reduces alcohol consumption but massively increases sales of sugar and yeast.
      - vintermann 4y ago
        It reduces total consumption. It might relatively increase homebrew consumption, but those are inferior substitutes in the economic sense.
    - kennend3 4y ago
      Here (Canada) alcohol is highly taxed. Take a look at Canada's consumption numbers and see if the "sin tax" accomplished anything.
      - vintermann 4y ago
        I'd also need a counterfactual Canada where alcohol taxes were low. We don't have that. But we have other countries and times to compare through, and there really is no question that accessibility affects consumption.
tayo42 4y ago
> (Or let people eat whatever they want and stop being a busybody.) These are massive corporations targeting individuals. If you look at obesity rates people are clearly on the losing side here.
kennend3 4y ago
In the case of the US you cant easily tax sugar production. The bulk of US sugar comes from "HFCS" (high fructose corn syrup) which is HEAVILY subsidized in the first place. So taxing something you are subsidizing makes zero sense. Remove the subsidy and the price of corn will go up, and with it the price of HFCS.

temporalparts 4y ago

Production is usually not within the jurisdiction of cities (as they are produced elsewhere and shipped there usually), so cities are limited in what they can do. As to busybody, excess sugar consumption is a public health problems that governments should intervene on, as I believe it is right for them to do in areas like tobacco.

irrational 4y ago
What about alcohol? They tax it, sure, but the tax isn’t high enough to discourage consumption. I’ve never heard of anyone getting in a car and killing people after consuming too much sugar.
- wyre 4y ago
  After moving from Idaho (no liquor tax) to Washington (heavy liquor tax), the higher taxes certainly discourage my consumption, at least slightly
  - brewdad 4y ago
    It's been a while since I visited BC or Ontario but I recall their liquor and beer taxes led me to purchase less than I had originally planned. I live near the WA/OR border and only buy things in WA that are not available in OR.
- vintermann 4y ago
  Alcohol taxes definitively reduces consumption, what makes you think it wouldn't? It's not one of the extremely rare Giffen goods which defy the laws of supply and demand. Most alcoholic drinks have a substitute in drinks with less (or no) alcohol in them, competing on price. Moreover, people's consumption is affected by how much is considered "normal" to drink (one of the early, solid findings of alcohol epidemiology), so there's a positive feedback amplifying small changes to consumption habits from other things.
  - yourusername 4y ago
    >Alcohol taxes definitively reduces consumption, what makes you think it wouldn't? In countries where the alcohol tax is high enough it reduces alcohol consumption but massively increases sales of sugar and yeast.
    - vintermann 4y ago
      It reduces total consumption. It might relatively increase homebrew consumption, but those are inferior substitutes in the economic sense.
  - kennend3 4y ago
    Here (Canada) alcohol is highly taxed. Take a look at Canada's consumption numbers and see if the "sin tax" accomplished anything.
    - vintermann 4y ago
      I'd also need a counterfactual Canada where alcohol taxes were low. We don't have that. But we have other countries and times to compare through, and there really is no question that accessibility affects consumption.

tayo42 4y ago

> (Or let people eat whatever they want and stop being a busybody.) These are massive corporations targeting individuals. If you look at obesity rates people are clearly on the losing side here.

kennend3 4y ago

In the case of the US you cant easily tax sugar production. The bulk of US sugar comes from "HFCS" (high fructose corn syrup) which is HEAVILY subsidized in the first place. So taxing something you are subsidizing makes zero sense. Remove the subsidy and the price of corn will go up, and with it the price of HFCS.