Nanny State Coming To Massachusetts
Long time Obama buddy and fellow Chicagoan Deval Patrick thinks that kids are drinking too much soda and candy and now he plans to tax it. I have three problems with this:
1. I dislike taxes, which will hurt the economy. Fine a 5% tax on candy doesn't amount to much, but remember the national income tax - originally, it was only .5% of our income. Once government gets away with taxing us more, it's hard for them to go the other way.
2. It's not government's job to tell us what or what not to eat. Again, you might say, the man has a point - too much candy isn't good for you. You may agree with this. That's fine. But what about when he comes out next year and tries to tax burgers, or steak, or sushi, or whatever, because he thinks that's not good for you? We're on a slippery slope here.
3. The desired effect will not work. The likely effect will be that kids will eat the same amount of candy, more or less, but that lower income kids will have less money in their pocket. Is that what he wanted? To take money away from lower income kids? I suspect not.
1. I dislike taxes, which will hurt the economy. Fine a 5% tax on candy doesn't amount to much, but remember the national income tax - originally, it was only .5% of our income. Once government gets away with taxing us more, it's hard for them to go the other way.
2. It's not government's job to tell us what or what not to eat. Again, you might say, the man has a point - too much candy isn't good for you. You may agree with this. That's fine. But what about when he comes out next year and tries to tax burgers, or steak, or sushi, or whatever, because he thinks that's not good for you? We're on a slippery slope here.
3. The desired effect will not work. The likely effect will be that kids will eat the same amount of candy, more or less, but that lower income kids will have less money in their pocket. Is that what he wanted? To take money away from lower income kids? I suspect not.
posted by pistolpete | 6:02 AM
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