Don't Believe the Hype!!

There has been much speculation over the recently proposed soda tax. This bill proposes a penny an ounce tax on soda with the reason being that soda is unhealthy and therefore taxation will help to reduce the consumption of it. Yes it is true, soda contains high fructose corn syrup which can lead to obesity which can make one more susceptible to harmful illnesses such as type 2 diabetes and heart problems just to name a couple. But personally, I think the proposed reasoning behind this tax is a little on the weak side. During these past few years my government has completely lost my trust, I am incapable of believing anything they say in general without at least finding some sort of background information on the matter. To help in conveying my thoughts I will quote a statement that was made in the Crain’s Business paper article “Soda Taxes Are Nothing More Than A Money Grab” that said, “we are meant to believe that a sin tax is being implemented for the good of the children and for the betterment of the citizenry’s health.”. We’ve seen, in these recent years, our government lie right to our faces on national television about issues such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan(our tax dollars at work) I think Americans, being the increasingly conscious (at least I hope) people that we are, are for the most part hip to the real reasoning behind this tax, other taxes and even the motive of other capitalistic countries in general, which is to maximize profit by any means necessary. So when they tell me that they want to put a tax on soda because they care about my health, excuse my reluctance to blindly accept that as an undeniable truth when I know full-well that our government mostly acts according to their own interests.


In the article, “Soda Taxes Are Nothing More Than A Money Grab” which was published in the Crain’s New York Business paper, the anonymous author makes a valid point when bringing up the notion that “ [this tax is] little more than a money grab by increasingly desperate governments to plug holes in their budgets”. Given our current economic situation this only makes sense. They can easily dip into our military budget, for example, which is roughly around 880 billion for this year, but what helps us to oversee and protect American interests around the world is our military might. So what is their alternative? More taxation on common people. We are already slaving over wages that cover the bare necessities and maybe a few luxuries if that. Personally I think the concept of value and money are simply that, concepts or abstract ideas. They are modes of mass control but that’s a whole other issue. The author of this article sees a bigger picture of what is going on and I think the message he is trying to send is not to believe the hype. Though it is a very opinionated piece, I hold a similar position on this issue of taxation on soda. If the government truly cared about the health of its people, harmful products like soda and cigarettes would be illegal.