The idea of a Sugar Tax is being knocked around in America again with a couple of states actually considering on implementing it as a way to negate some of the costs caused as a direct result of poor health from a diet high in sugar.
The very concept of taxing ‘unhealthy food’ will achieve no good as its a defective concept, ludicrous.
Some people follow the argument that, “if it is making people unhealthy then why not tax it, after all it is a measurable expense to society.” This simply ignores the facts of the food industry.
Here is the thing, sugar is massive in our diets because we love eating sweet things and because it is a really cheap ingredient. It is super cheap, and one of the reasons for this is because it is a subsidised industry, which basically means that sugar-making gets assistance from tax payers money to make American sugar is cheap enough for it to maintain a competitive edge.
In other words, tax money makes sugar cheap enough so that food companies can make stacks of money making cheap, sugary food. Due to the subsidy we can afford huge amounts of sugary food, so much so that we become unhealthy, then more tax dollars gets forked out to the health sector.
If we introduce a sugar tax it will be a horrible thing to manage and it will only mean that the cost of high sugar foods will go up and people will pay more. Food companies will still make loads of cash and there will still be subsidies and health costs.
If you want an actual solution, remove the subsidy on sugar! All the cheap and nasty food that offers little nutritional content will go up, no tax required!
