6 ms·

In a country with taxpayer-funded healthcare, taxing things which make people unhealthy is just basic economics. The only problem with this tax is that it does

In a country with taxpayer-funded healthcare, taxing things which make people unhealthy is just basic economics. The only problem with this tax is that it doesn’t go far enough. There’s definitely other product categories it could apply to.

sublinear 2y ago
That's precisely why healthcare shouldn't be taxpayer funded. It's a total outage. There needs to be a separation of concerns, and do I really need to give a history lesson why taxing the disadvantaged is not a long term solution? History must repeat, but almost always from ignorance, huh?
- robertjpayne 2y ago
  What?!? You argue disadvantaged shouldn’t be taxed but argue they should be on the hook for their own healthcare? Insanity.
- lupusreal 2y ago
  > do I really need to Please do make your best argument for why taxing horribly unhealthy junk foods will actually harm poor people more than it helps. No sense holding back and merely threatening to make that argument. Do you figure that expensive cola will cause famine or something? I'm eager to know.
- xen0 2y ago
  Ok, so who is paying for health care? Because it isn't the 'disadvantaged', many of whom are going to need it.
  - sublinear 2y ago
    I think there are more poor than you imagine. Can you provide solid numbers how this rectangle is constructed?
    - xen0 2y ago
      The largest forms of tax revenue in the UK are, in order: * Income Tax * National Insurance * VAT * Corporation Tax In terms of amounts received, the first is by far the largest and is overwhelmingly paid by 'higher earners'. The top 50 % pay over 90% of it. The top 1% pay ~30% of it. National Insurance is less progressive. I would argue that should change but it is what it is. I can't argue against VAT being regressive, but breakdown of 'amount of VAT paid by income' isn't available.
TimedToasts 2y ago
If single-payer healthcare means that I have to now monitor my - city - county - state - federal entities to see if they will be levying individual food taxes... I don't know - I don't want to have to do that. That is just making life even more exhausting than it already is.
- henryethan 2y ago
  [flagged]

sublinear 2y ago

That's precisely why healthcare shouldn't be taxpayer funded. It's a total outage. There needs to be a separation of concerns, and do I really need to give a history lesson why taxing the disadvantaged is not a long term solution? History must repeat, but almost always from ignorance, huh?

robertjpayne 2y ago
What?!? You argue disadvantaged shouldn’t be taxed but argue they should be on the hook for their own healthcare? Insanity.
lupusreal 2y ago
> do I really need to Please do make your best argument for why taxing horribly unhealthy junk foods will actually harm poor people more than it helps. No sense holding back and merely threatening to make that argument. Do you figure that expensive cola will cause famine or something? I'm eager to know.
xen0 2y ago
Ok, so who is paying for health care? Because it isn't the 'disadvantaged', many of whom are going to need it.
- sublinear 2y ago
  I think there are more poor than you imagine. Can you provide solid numbers how this rectangle is constructed?
  - xen0 2y ago
    The largest forms of tax revenue in the UK are, in order: * Income Tax * National Insurance * VAT * Corporation Tax In terms of amounts received, the first is by far the largest and is overwhelmingly paid by 'higher earners'. The top 50 % pay over 90% of it. The top 1% pay ~30% of it. National Insurance is less progressive. I would argue that should change but it is what it is. I can't argue against VAT being regressive, but breakdown of 'amount of VAT paid by income' isn't available.

TimedToasts 2y ago

If single-payer healthcare means that I have to now monitor my - city - county - state - federal entities to see if they will be levying individual food taxes... I don't know - I don't want to have to do that. That is just making life even more exhausting than it already is.

henryethan 2y ago
[flagged]