Fat tax?? What next, Big Brother?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by RobH4413

There's also a debate going on about an internet tax.

If your for any kind of tax, which I assume your for taxing somethings, I don't see why internet or fat foods would be a huge issue. It's all part of generating revenue for a government. Unless it really takes a huge chunk out of the spending pocket of the consumer (I'm no econ major, so please correct me if I'm wrong) then it shouldn't be a huge deal.

How are fat foods any different than cigarette's, alcohol, or anything else bad for your health that's taxed?

I really don't have a strong feeling either way for this... but I'm interested to here what Schneed and the likes have to say about it.

In terms of economics, an increase in taxes always takes money out of the hands of the consumers. People are always going to buy food, but they'll have less money for other things, luxury items like IPods and TVs and designer jeans and home improvements. So less money in the hands of the consumer means less business for Best Buy, Walmart, Home Depot, etc. So the downside is you may see those companies cut jobs to save costs.

So increasing taxes generally goes hand in hand with unemployment. But if you're not piling on a big tax hike, and it only amounts to like 5 cents for a Big Mac, then the effect is minimal.

Besides, in this case, the government would be talking about shifting funds to help fund the healthcare system. Economically speaking, you have to weigh whether it's worth seeing a minor uptick in unemployment in exchange for better funding for the healthcare system. I think that tradeoff would be well worth it considering the state of our healthcare system.