Philadelphia is poised to become the first large American city to pass a soda tax. If the measure passes a final vote next week, as it is expected to do, it will impose a tax of 1.5 cents for every ounce that includes sugar or artificial sweeteners — about 30 cents for a 20-ounce drink or $2.16 for a 12-pack. On Wednesday night, it was passed on a voice vote by the City Council’s “committee of the whole,” which includes the entire council.
Soda taxes have usually been proposed as public health measures to discourage people from drinking sugary beverages, which have been linked to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay. They have been introduced in cities around the country, including twice before in Philadelphia, but repeatedly failed. Berkeley, Calif., is the only American city with a tax on sugary drinks; the Philadelphia tax would be considerably higher.
Mayor Jim Kenney’s original proposal was to tax sugary drinks at 3 cents an ounce, a rate that would have doubled the price of many sodas. Aware of the political challenges, he tried a novel strategy to promote his tax. Instead of selling it as a nanny state measure meant to make the city healthier, he presented it as a big untapped source of revenue that could be used to pay for popular initiatives, including expanded prekindergarten, and renovations of city libraries and recreation centers.
When I was a smoker, paying $14/pack during a trip to Manhattan definitely cut down on the habit. Of course, that's $7 more/day rather than $.30-1.00.
Better to undermine the causes (corn subsidies) rather than relying on an amount that isn't heavy enough to be felt in the moment but will add up over time for poor people. Even stores buying from a Sam's Club make a better than 50% margin on this stuff so they'll just lower prices accordingly if it really hurts demand.
milosz wrote:Better to undermine the causes (corn subsidies) rather than relying on an amount that isn't heavy enough to be felt in the moment but will add up over time for poor people.
How would ending a federal subsidy help with a local revenue problem?
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
Soda is almost as important to some people's lives as gasoline or cigarettes. It won't matter to the hard core drinkers. Hell, going to jail for using drugs or weed hasn't put a dent in that, so why would taxing it make a difference?
I love when the "protectors of the poor" make life harder for the poor. What's it going to take for young Jamal X to take his family to McDonald's when the $15 minimum wage hits and the soda tax is in place.
SJW's think corporate fast food is going to absorb these costs. They aren't, their disadvantaged customers are, and SJW's say "too fucking bad, it's for your own good" yet Jamal votes for them again and again.
Father knows best.
Mao wrote:Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party
Child obesity prevalence is highest in the North planning district. National data show Philadelphia ranks 1st among the
7 large cities for which teen obesity prevalence is known; note that this measure includes only high school students.
31.9% of Philadelphia's adults have a BMI ≥30kg/m2. According to national data, Philadelphia has the highest adult obesity prevalence among the 11 largest U.S. counties. Dipping slightly in 2004, adult obesity rose 14% between 2002 and 2012.
Actually, the biggest beneficiaries may be the poor. Philly's been trying (and largely failing) to improve the health of it's poor population for years-- the effects of this tax may help with that.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
DrDonkeyLove wrote:I love when the "protectors of the poor" make life harder for the poor. What's it going to take for young Jamal X to take his family to McDonald's when the $15 minimum wage hits and the soda tax is in place.
SJW's think corporate fast food is going to absorb these costs. They aren't, their disadvantaged customers are, and SJW's say "too fucking bad, it's for your own good" yet Jamal votes for them again and again.
Father knows best.
do you think jamal should vote republican?
. . . because they're so sympathetic to and helpful to poor blacks
Really Big Strong Guy: There are a plethora of psychopaths among us.
Shafpocalypse Now wrote:I don't think it's enough to decrease consumption.
Then it's a perfect tax-- raises revenue to play with, only hurts people who will vote for you anyway, and allows politicians to say they're doing it for the children. Balance pertains.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
DrDonkeyLove wrote:I love when the "protectors of the poor" make life harder for the poor. What's it going to take for young Jamal X to take his family to McDonald's when the $15 minimum wage hits and the soda tax is in place.
SJW's think corporate fast food is going to absorb these costs. They aren't, their disadvantaged customers are, and SJW's say "too fucking bad, it's for your own good" yet Jamal votes for them again and again.
Father knows best.
do you think jamal should vote republican?
. . . because they're so sympathetic to and helpful to poor blacks
I don't think Democrats or Republicans care about Jamal as a human being very much at all. The Dems might provide him with a training program to install or repair the robots that are replacing his cousin Jamil at Popeyes because they're cutting labor costs.
Soda can now become a gray market commodity similar to that used by hillbillies
“Well, you try paying that much for a case of pop,” says the irritated proprietor of a nearby café, who is curt with whoever is on the other end of the telephone but greets customers with the perfect manners that small-town restaurateurs reliably develop. I don’t think much of that overheard remark at the time, but it turns out that the local economy runs on black-market soda the way Baghdad ran on contraband crude during the days of sanctions. It works like this: Once a month, the debit-card accounts of those receiving what we still call food stamps are credited with a few hundred dollars — about $500 for a family of four, on average — which are immediately converted into a unit of exchange, in this case cases of soda. On the day when accounts are credited, local establishments accepting EBT cards — and all across the Big White Ghetto, “We Accept Food Stamps” is the new E pluribus unum – are swamped with locals using their public benefits to buy cases and cases — reports put the number at 30 to 40 cases for some buyers — of soda. Those cases of soda then either go on to another retailer, who buys them at 50 cents on the dollar, in effect laundering those $500 in monthly benefits into $250 in cash — a considerably worse rate than your typical organized-crime money launderer offers — or else they go into the local black-market economy, where they can be used as currency in such ventures as the dealing of unauthorized prescription painkillers — by “pillbillies,” as they are known at the sympathetic establishments in Florida that do so much business with Kentucky and West Virginia that the relevant interstate bus service is nicknamed the “OxyContin Express.” A woman who is intimately familiar with the local drug economy suggests that the exchange rate between sexual favors and cases of pop — some dealers will accept either — is about 1:1, meaning that the value of a woman in the local prescription-drug economy is about $12.99 at Walmart prices.
The Democrat sin taxers killed Eric Garner for the crime of selling tax stamp free loosies on Staten Island. If we throw grape drank into the mix it's going to be a sticky purple holocaust in the hood! But....it's for the children so it's OK.
Mao wrote:Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party
DrDonkeyLove wrote:
The Democrat sin taxers killed Eric Garner for the crime of selling tax stamp free loosies on Staten Island. If we throw grape drank into the mix it's going to be a sticky purple holocaust in the hood! But....it's for the children so it's OK.
Quote of the day.
Blaidd Drwg wrote:Disengage from the outcome and do work.
DrDonkeyLove wrote:
The Democrat sin taxers killed Eric Garner for the crime of selling tax stamp free loosies on Staten Island.
so he didn't die during a physical conflict with cops, but was struck down by a nanny-sponsored tax, as if by lightning?
a guy can learn so much here.
except wait. cigarette taxes go back to the civil war, so he was killed by a tax established under the first republican administration to finance the fight to free his ancestors
life is so complicated and karma is everywhere fucking around with simplistic notions of cause and effect.
Really Big Strong Guy: There are a plethora of psychopaths among us.
DrDonkeyLove wrote:
The Democrat sin taxers killed Eric Garner for the crime of selling tax stamp free loosies on Staten Island.
so he didn't die during a physical conflict with cops, but was struck down by a nanny-sponsored tax, as if by lightning?
a guy can learn so much here.
except wait. cigarette taxes go back to the civil war, so he was killed by a tax established under the first republican administration to finance the fight to free his ancestors
life is so complicated and karma is everywhere fucking around with simplistic notions of cause and effect.
He died because was an unhealthy obese guy who resisted arrest, and bad things can happen when you do that.
But, the root cause is definitely tax related. DiBlasio can tolerate all kinds of disgusting conduct by the lower classes but denying the man his vig can't be tolerated by a Progressive politician.
Our statist masters have taxed a pack of evil cigs to be so expensive that they created a gray market in loosies for the lower economic classes. Philly is doing with same thing with sodas.
Philly's comfortable white Progressives will gladly pay more for their sodas for the ego boost of participating in the Progressive greater good while the poor will do what they've always done, which is to find a work around. Mcdonald's will charge the same list price for unsweetened iced tea as as they do for a soda. Jamal, D'Jamal, and deJamalia will order large unsweetened iced teas and load their cups up with delicious orange Fanta.
Mao wrote:Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party
well corn growers, who are paid fat subsidies, are gonna be pissed if the market is shrinks because of taxes. they'll be pissing and moaning about government interference.
Really Big Strong Guy: There are a plethora of psychopaths among us.
Forget soda tax, I think there should be monthly bodyfat analysis, and any fat fuck over 25% pays a heavy fine. If you can't pay, off you go to the pokey to get ass pounded by some Michael Browns.
Herv100 wrote:Forget soda tax, I think there should be monthly bodyfat analysis, and any fat fuck over 25% pays a heavy fine. If you can't pay, off you go to the pokey to get ass pounded by some Michael Browns.
How dare you fuck up the Big Girl thread....
jesus tits.
"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." JS Mill
DrDonkeyLove wrote:
The Democrat sin taxers killed Eric Garner for the crime of selling tax stamp free loosies on Staten Island.
so he didn't die during a physical conflict with cops, but was struck down by a nanny-sponsored tax, as if by lightning?
a guy can learn so much here.
except wait. cigarette taxes go back to the civil war, so he was killed by a tax established under the first republican administration to finance the fight to free his ancestors
life is so complicated and karma is everywhere fucking around with simplistic notions of cause and effect.
