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Damien's Response: The Taxing Of Sugary Drinks

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Damien's Response "' They are literally holding hostage the jobs of hardworking people in their battle to overturn the tax.'" ( Sifferlin 5). How could the taxing of sugary drinks, specifically soda, be beneficial if it's the cause of soda companies like Pepsi putting the jobs of their employees in the hands of taxes? How do people expect these taxes to work if they are being misguided on their cause? How will these taxes work if the drinks are still available, and if all these questions arise, how is it possible for these taxes to actually be anything but a hassle? The questions that surface can support the fact that as they are enforced,the taxes are unnecessary and causing less help than people think; they can be presented as an inconvenience …show more content…

This however, is not what people believe to be the true reason behind the taxes given that politicians can sometime have the proclivity to lie or not be completely honest with citizens. It seems as if the people behind these taxes, who promote them to be a cause of lowering the rate of obese and diabetics, are using this view of helping out the citizens as an excuse to look good in enforcing the tax. Kelly Brownell and William Shughart further support the idea that the taxes are the politicians providing the public with the brightest points from the taxes by saying, "Citizens do not normally expect politicians to be truthful. If they want to impose these taxes, they should be honest enough to admit that they will not end obesity and diabetes, but rather will generate more of other people's money for state government to spend." (8). With this, Brownell describes the taxing as being used for government spending, and people don't trust the political imagery of it being prompted to stop obesity. The reality could be that the taxes will be used as money for the governments, but the politicians are insulting citizens by saying it will stop obesity when it really …show more content…

If done right the political side would be able to use this accurately, however it is not done right. The tax shouldn't be enforced because of the way obesity isn't drastically improved upon from these taxes. The people who don't want to pay high prices have alternatives available to them, so the taxes stopping obesity proves useless. The alternatives are going to be more tempting when consumers see the prices of the taxed drinks and still be consuming drinks that may not be healthy. This, on top of the political eye of the situation, are reasons that the tax can't be helpful to stop obesity; one of the main claims to stop the taxes being to stop obesity. Further support of this being that author Brian Gale points in his article, "What the Soda Tax Means for Consumers" that even with the drink's taxes reducing how much is being consumed, it is uncertain if it's changing the consumers' choices of unhealthy drinking choices. It is undeniable that gauging every singe persons drinking and health choices will prove difficult based solely on the taxing of sugary beverages, especially with the idea of multiple variables having an influence on the drinking habits of every

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