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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (120691)	9/9/2009 1:14:49 PM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542024

If that is the bar, there are any number of things that you could ban or tax to death. It's mostly a question of offsetting the costs from various things. We regulate and tax pollution because it creates a social cost. We require seatbelts, helmets, speed limits (which cost trucking companies profits due to time) and liability insurance on the road because without them, there is a higher social cost. Cigarette taxes are huge now. And on and on. The actual financial costs of our obesity epidemic are huge and growing. The idea that a pizza-addicted 300-pounder has the right to expect everyone else to pay for the healthcare burden they create doesn't add up.

To: slacker711 who wrote (120691)	9/9/2009 1:52:32 PM
From: cosmicforce	Respond to of 542024

Deciding? Who's deciding? Taxing is not "deciding" is it? Is the government "deciding to not allow income" by taxing it? Not really unless one is using the rhetoric of a fringe group. The idea that the free market is efficient in absolute is absurd. Consider the situation where I open a profitable lead mine next to your house. I run it, pollute your land, tie you up in court while you complain. Meanwhile, I pay myself a salary and performance bonuses, quit my job as CEO and leave a shell corporation behind for you to sue. Too bad it has no assets left - I took them with me and you can't pierce the "corporate veil" to get me. Similarly, Coke and other companies are causing untold long term harms that they are not going to pay for. Being proactive and managing long term risk and hazards using financial incentives and penalties is hardly a nanny state. You can always make your own sodas! Dump some sugar into water and add some cheap colorings and flavors with some CO2 and H2P04. There you go!

To: slacker711 who wrote (120691)	9/9/2009 2:18:39 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 542024

People like their medicare. I don't see old folks lining up to give that up. If you want the state to help take care of you, then you at least have to give the state some power to raise money on foods that really do kill- and which also give people expensive health problems. Taxing things that have huge societal costs makes sense. If people aren't turned off by the taxes, at least the tax money can help you foot some bills down the road- though I do think there should be trust funds for the money, so it doesn't just get dumped ina general fund.