The unfortunate reality that Americans are overweight raises valid questions concerning our countries dietary habits-but placing a tax on personal choices is ineffective and carries unintended consequences. Cigarette tax, for example, has created a black market and criminalized the lower class. If a smoker can’t afford to legally buy cigarettes, they’ll go to the entrepreneur who buys cartons from Native American smoke shops and sells them on the street.
Rather than taxing soda, we should implement an effective public awareness campaign. Persuading people to make their own decisions has been proven more effective than attempting to force people to do so. In the 1990’s, the Harvard School of Public Health masterfully rolled out the “Designated Driver” campaign with huge success. To this day, the “designated driver” is practically a requirement for social outings whereas prior to the campaign such a notion never existed.
Another troubling aspect of the soda tax is the fact that the proposal comes from Michael Bloomberg-the same man who made sweetened Snapple drinks the official beverage of New York’s high school vending machines. Can somebody say hypocrisy? The $116 million dollar deal didn’t prove profitable and was therefore axed in 2009.
The point is that rather than forcing people into health conscience decisions that may unintentionally criminalize the lower class, our government should step up as leaders and persuade, rather than force, sugar lovers to cut back in order to save their own health. Americans should be encouraged to value themselves enough to care about what they are injesting.
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