5 ms·

Shops will just sell the sugar and the soda separately, mix it yourself :) Or people will pay more.

by jopsen 2y ago

bitmasher9 2y ago
I bet adding the sugar yourself would reduce consumption considerably. Which would be the goal of the tax.
- llamaimperative 2y ago
  Unfortunately Internet people like to point out the hypothetical 99th percentile person who would evade/be immune to such incentives and suggest that therefore, it would not be worth doing. It’s such a common and lazy pattern on HN :(
  - Someone1234 2y ago
    When I read those, I don't actually think those people believe their own arguments. They started with a conclusion, like "sugar taxes are bad," and then worked backwards to find an argument to fit it. That's why when you challenge them they just shift the goalposts.
PaulRobinson 2y ago
Not what has happened in the UK, where sugar tax has been a thing since 2018. It's now actually quite hard to find a sweetened drink - almost all soda-style beverages now are "zero sugar", sweetened with artificial sweeteners. Nobody is buying sugar and pouring it in. Nobody. It's a little too early to determine if this has slowed the prevalence of diabetes in the population. One problem is that other studies have shown that drinking artificially sweetened beverages with foods means many people end up eating more calories of food - the brain is looking for calories indicated by the sweet taste its not getting from the beverage, so compensates. It's a complex picture, but sugar taxes seem to be a reasonable way to get sugary drinks off the shelves.
- Melting_Harps 2y ago
  > It's a complex picture, but sugar taxes seem to be a reasonable way to get sugary drinks off the shelves. As a person who is indifferent to the prospect, I fail to see why? When I lived in the UK a lot of people who couldn't afford real juice would buy 'squash' and drink it as a replacement for juice. I personally found it entirely revolting and way too sugary but on occasion used it in my teas to flavor them: I just can't see why the consumer should be punished with less options, or worse those made with things like aspertame, then simply rely on the consumer to use said product responsibly. I guess one can say with things like the NHS the consequences are socialized, but even that is a stretch as the British diet is a near mirror image of it's American counterpart in it's wide use of highly processed and refined foodstuff. Besides, if you go to the smaller shops run by non-Anglo merchants you will find every conceivable item you can imagine: I personally think Turkish food has way too much sugar in it's diet, but as I found out from our baker they make the most amazing fruit syrups to make deserts with, which incidentally make for good tea enhancers as well! Again, maybe I'm just too biased given my lived experience in this space, but nothing has yet to convince me that price alone serves as a real deterrent to really solve this issue, only an improved lifestyle choice where those calories get effectively used end up really solving the core issue.
  - frameset 2y ago
    > When I lived in the UK a lot of people who couldn't afford real juice would buy 'squash' and drink it as a replacement for juice. I personally found it entirely revolting and way too sugary Are you aware that you're supposed to dilute squash to taste? It's just concentrated juice. If it's too sweet, you haven't added enough water.
    - Melting_Harps 2y ago
      Yes, even then the horrid taste left a terrible feel in my mouth, which is why it was only palatable with fruit tea and with additional citrus juice for my tastes: and even then I still don't want it removed from the market if it serves a specific demographic.
- 2y ago
skeeter2020 2y ago
they'll optimize the packaging to help you out. My mom tells me about how margarine used to come with a yellow color packet to mix into your white spread. The dairy board lobbied to make it illegal to sell yellow margarine because "it looks like butter". Didn't seem to hurt Oleo much... https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-consumers-had-to-diy-for-their-margarine-buy-1.5436629 https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-consumers-had-to-diy-for-th...
sushid 2y ago
Both would reduce demand so a sharp drop off would still be fairly realistic. Of course, getting anything done at the federal would be impossible in the US today.

Shops will just sell the sugar and the soda separately, mix it yourself :) Or people will pay more.

by jopsen 2y ago

Shops will just sell the sugar and the soda separately, mix it yourself :) Or people will pay more.

bitmasher9 2y ago

I bet adding the sugar yourself would reduce consumption considerably. Which would be the goal of the tax.

llamaimperative 2y ago
Unfortunately Internet people like to point out the hypothetical 99th percentile person who would evade/be immune to such incentives and suggest that therefore, it would not be worth doing. It’s such a common and lazy pattern on HN :(
- Someone1234 2y ago
  When I read those, I don't actually think those people believe their own arguments. They started with a conclusion, like "sugar taxes are bad," and then worked backwards to find an argument to fit it. That's why when you challenge them they just shift the goalposts.

PaulRobinson 2y ago

Not what has happened in the UK, where sugar tax has been a thing since 2018. It's now actually quite hard to find a sweetened drink - almost all soda-style beverages now are "zero sugar", sweetened with artificial sweeteners. Nobody is buying sugar and pouring it in. Nobody. It's a little too early to determine if this has slowed the prevalence of diabetes in the population. One problem is that other studies have shown that drinking artificially sweetened beverages with foods means many people end up eating more calories of food - the brain is looking for calories indicated by the sweet taste its not getting from the beverage, so compensates. It's a complex picture, but sugar taxes seem to be a reasonable way to get sugary drinks off the shelves.

Melting_Harps 2y ago
> It's a complex picture, but sugar taxes seem to be a reasonable way to get sugary drinks off the shelves. As a person who is indifferent to the prospect, I fail to see why? When I lived in the UK a lot of people who couldn't afford real juice would buy 'squash' and drink it as a replacement for juice. I personally found it entirely revolting and way too sugary but on occasion used it in my teas to flavor them: I just can't see why the consumer should be punished with less options, or worse those made with things like aspertame, then simply rely on the consumer to use said product responsibly. I guess one can say with things like the NHS the consequences are socialized, but even that is a stretch as the British diet is a near mirror image of it's American counterpart in it's wide use of highly processed and refined foodstuff. Besides, if you go to the smaller shops run by non-Anglo merchants you will find every conceivable item you can imagine: I personally think Turkish food has way too much sugar in it's diet, but as I found out from our baker they make the most amazing fruit syrups to make deserts with, which incidentally make for good tea enhancers as well! Again, maybe I'm just too biased given my lived experience in this space, but nothing has yet to convince me that price alone serves as a real deterrent to really solve this issue, only an improved lifestyle choice where those calories get effectively used end up really solving the core issue.
- frameset 2y ago
  > When I lived in the UK a lot of people who couldn't afford real juice would buy 'squash' and drink it as a replacement for juice. I personally found it entirely revolting and way too sugary Are you aware that you're supposed to dilute squash to taste? It's just concentrated juice. If it's too sweet, you haven't added enough water.
  - Melting_Harps 2y ago
    Yes, even then the horrid taste left a terrible feel in my mouth, which is why it was only palatable with fruit tea and with additional citrus juice for my tastes: and even then I still don't want it removed from the market if it serves a specific demographic.
2y ago

skeeter2020 2y ago

they'll optimize the packaging to help you out. My mom tells me about how margarine used to come with a yellow color packet to mix into your white spread. The dairy board lobbied to make it illegal to sell yellow margarine because "it looks like butter". Didn't seem to hurt Oleo much... https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-consumers-had-to-diy-for-their-margarine-buy-1.5436629 https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-consumers-had-to-diy-for-th...

sushid 2y ago

Both would reduce demand so a sharp drop off would still be fairly realistic. Of course, getting anything done at the federal would be impossible in the US today.