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.

This is Ronald McDonald to ground Control

The McDonald’s corporation has some of the brightest, intelligent and resourceful people in their marketing and research divisions. They have gone above and beyond, doing everything they can to make their money and acquire more power of influence on the people. For this, I can only commend them. If only the McDonald’s corporation would use their power to, at least, do some good for the community instead of working toward their own gains which is the all mighty dollar. It never ceases to amaze me what extraordinary feats people are capable of when it comes to making money. The McDonald’s corporation knows that in order to run a successful business chain it must strategically build it in a certain area.

In Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation” there is a section in the third chapter called “Space Mountain”, in which he goes on to say in the second paragraph of page 66 “McDonalds has perfected the art of site selection”. But first, he describes a bit of the history of a town called Colorado Springs in Colorado. Schlosser writes of this town going through a severe depression and then after WW2 the military seized the opportunity to buy large quantities of land dirt cheap. Large Air Force bases and facilities were built in this town because of its specific location which was as Schlosser says on page 61 “beyond the range of soviet bombers”. It is here in Colorado Springs where the air force has built a space command station in its mountains and is also where satellites, which are used to analyze data from space via imagery, are built and launched. McDonalds has adopted this strategy. When the technology finally was invented they began to use satellites and its automated site selection computer program Quintillion to map out its targeted locations, used information from already existing McDonald’s franchises, as well as many other forms of data analysis. Schlosser quotes a marketing publication, in which the name of it has not been mentioned in the reading, that says “[McDonald’s businessmen are permitted] to spy on their customers with the same equipment once used to fight the Cold War”. Just let that last sentence marinate in your mind for a minute.

I am astounded at the McDonald’s corporation’s efforts, but at the same time I am not surprised at its methods. It is a known fact that McDonald’s has no problem violating the rights of its workers (being a former employee of McDonald’s many years ago I have seen this first hand) and we also know that they can find patterns in what the customers buy and how often they visit a McDonald’s, but will they eventually resort to secretive methods that will violate the rights of its customers? In these recent years we have witnessed the power of the corporation and its influence on the people in our government and our society. I think as people we can influence our government to cut the strings corporations in general pull and regulate the methods used by corporations such as McDonalds, if the people are well informed enough. Them using satellite technology just goes to show what they are capable of. What else are they capable of?