Fat Taxes: To Be Or Not To Be?

TW: This is a relatively long piece from which I clipped a small chunk. Should we nudge folks with obesity taxes on sweets and high fat items much like we do with sin taxes? Personally I have no problem with it. Anything to nudge folks towards cutting weight is good by me. Yes the taxes would be regressive, yes the tax efficacies dubious but it addresses a societal challenge for which few alternatives are available. Given the choice between watching our society eat its way towards oblivion and trying something like this I say give it a shot.

Taxes are going up one way or the other (barring unlikely yet preferred from my perspective cuts to defense, health care and social security). A value-added tax will almost certainly emerge in our lifetimes. Fat taxes seem like as good a way to start as any.

From Chicago Tribune:
"Sin taxes" on cigarettes have turned out to be the most effective weapon in the campaign to reduce smoking.Why not try it on Flamin' Hot Cheetos, vanilla Coke and Twinkies?

...The notion is catching on with the general public, however. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll last month found that 55% of respondents favored a tax on unhealthful snack foods, up from 52% in April. Support for a soda tax rose to 53% from 46%.

And 63% of those who opposed the idea said they would change their minds if the revenue were used to fund healthcare reform and combat health problems related to obesity.

A report this summer from the Urban Institute said such taxes are needed to ensure that rising obesity rates don't cause the average American life expectancy to fall for the first time in history."

We are killing 100,000 people per year, so something needs to get done," said University of Virginia pediatric cardiologist Arthur Garson, one of the study's authors.

...the logic of a junk-food tax seems clear. Fattening foods tend to be cheap, and fresh produce and lean cuts of meat are often the priciest. A tax could help offset that imbalance, nudging people to eat more of what they should and less of what they shouldn't.

...To make a significant dent in escalating rates of obesity, taxes would have to be steep and widespread. Two-thirds of states now impose a modest soft-drink tax -- the average rate is 5.2% -- and though the taxes are linked to a drop in body weight, the difference is extremely slight: about 3 ounces for a 5-foot-10, 279-pound person.

...Tobacco taxes are also much higher than anything likely to be adopted for food and beverages. Slapping a 10% tax on a $1.50-bottle of Coke would raise the price a mere 15 cents -- not enough to persuade most shoppers to drink Diet Coke instead. Many calorie-laden foods are simply too cheap to be priced out of the market by any but the most draconian of taxes. Studies mostly bear this out..."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-sci-junk-food-tax23-2009aug23,0,7345912.story