Soda/Obesity Tax?

[Coopa Cabana]

I can truly, personally empathize with every single one of you who is opposed to this new proposed tax - no matter why your opposition - health issues, government infringement, or financial hardship, because I feel the exact same way every time I buy a pack of cigarettes.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
This is sure to get the thread closed, but I'd really like to address your points here, Boyd.

First, if I make $30,000/yr and spend it all just to stay alive, I'm being taxed on 100% of my income.. If I make $25,000/yr and it takes me $30,000/yr and several credit cards to stay alive, I'm actually being taxed on 120% of my income...

If, on the other hand, I make $3,000,000 and I spend half of it, I can live like a king and I'm still only getting taxed on 50% of my income..

I just can't see how a system that taxes rich people at a much lower rate and poor people at a much higher rate is a "fair" tax...imho.


Second...as for illegals and taxes.. Does anyone really think that illegal immigrants escape taxes? When they put fuel in their cars, they pay fuel tax. If they buy things at the store, they pay sales tax.. If they have a telephone or cable or satellite or almost any kind of utility, they're likely paying excise taxes and school taxes and so forth.. If they rent a house, their rent helps pay property taxes.. If they drive a car, they pay registration fees and taxes and whotnot whether that car is actually in their name or not.. On and on it goes. It's easy to forget how many things we're taxed on until you start to consider the idea of someone avoiding taxes altogether. It's pretty much impossible in this day and age..

The real kicker, though, is that a HUGE number of illegals work under fake or alias social security numbers.. The IRS knows it, as they have something like 8MM+ numbers -- last I checked -- that looked wonky.. For instance, one number might be showing five or six jobs, which probably means there are five or six illegals who used that number to gain employment at a regular W-2 job. They pay taxes under that social, but guess what...they can never claim the return. My understanding is that most of the time, the people who broker the socials tell them to claim ZERO dependents on their taxes to ensure that no money is owed at the end of the year. If you don't owe, you don't legally have to file... If you don't file within 3 years, the IRS gets to keep what would have been refunded..

So, when you think about it...illegals may actually be overpaying their taxes!

Sure, there are some who work under the table and whatnot, but seriously...I can guarantee you that there are far more Americans than illegals working under the table.

So, those are my two counterpoints. Didn't mean to offend anyone...just wanted to put the other side out there.

Interesting points... Lots to think about...

We are taxed on everything, in so many ways, and on so many levels I can't get my brain around it. I sorta believe the government likes it that way.

The idea of paying taxes only on what you consume does seem to have some merit though. I would argue that the person who makes 3mil and spends 1.5mil still pays a lot more taxes than the guy who makes and spends 30k. Are sliding scales/brackets truly fair in the first place? I don't think so.

I sure as heck don't have the solution. The first thing I'd like to see is the government shrink on every level but I can't say with confidence that won't hurt the economy in unforeseen ways.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:

I know that frustration and annoyance.

 

[Boyd]

http://www.nofoodtaxes.com/


Here's the website that tackles food and beverage sin taxes. Great article this morning about the soda tax proposal.

 

[Goose and Fig]

We moved from Ohio where there is NO tax on food, only soda (7%) to Tennessee where there is 9.25% tax on every food item. It's been 3 years since we moved and I still can't get used to the difference it makes in our food bill.

They try to say it's justified because there is no state income tax in TN. Honestly, I'd rather pay the income tax.

 

[Wifezilla]

Interesting site Boyd. Too bad they got all their sweetener information completely wrong. The body does NOT process sugar and high fructose corn syrup the same. Studies that say we do are often funded by.....you guessed it....soft drink manufacturers.

"Of the six studies CBS News looked at on the association’s Web site that “Confirm High Fructose Corn Syrup [is] No Different From Sugar,” three were sponsored by groups that stand to profit from research that promotes HFCS. Two were never published so their funding sources are unclear. And one was sponsored by a Dutch foundation that represents the interests of the sugar industry.

Pepsi funded one study, so did a D.C. based lobbying group that gets their money from food, chemical and drug companies. And the American Beverage Association gave a grant for another.

One researcher who was involved in three of the studies, Dr. James M. Rippe, a cardiologist and founder of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute says there is no link between HFCS and obesity and calls contrary evidence “accusations” and “speculation.”

Rippe’s ties with industry are no secret. Pepsico, Tropicana and Quaker among others are all listed as Rippe Health Partners on his Web site along with this quote: “The RLI research team conducts multiple studies of mutual interest to RLI and PepsiCo North America in topics such as short-term energy regulation response to high fructose corn syrup…”

But research indicates the source of a study’s funding has a stake in the outcome.

Last year, research from the Children’s Hospital Boston suggested that nutrition research, like medical and tobacco research, can be influenced when industry funds the studies. It showed that when studies were sponsored exclusively by food/drinks companies, the conclusions were four to eight times more likely to be favorable to the sponsoring company."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/01/cbsnews_investigates/main4491513.shtml

Also, regular sugar usually doesn't contain mercury. HFCS does.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012601831.html

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
Sure they do! It's certainly to their benefit to have lots of different "revenue streams" besides straight-up income taxes.

Quote:
Ok, but...

Quote:
...isn't a tax system that allows rich people to be taxed on less of a percentage of their income than poor people really just a sliding scale that happens to slide the other way?

I think it is.

And, frankly, if we have to have a sliding scale...seems to me that punishing the poor and favoring the rich isn't going to do much but accelerate the widening of the gap between the two and further erode an already-decimated middle class.

But that's just my opinion, of course.

Quote:
I think we can probably agree there, so long as "smaller government" isn't code for privitization and deregulation of everything.

 

[agnes_day]

please dont take my high fructose corn syrup away

 

[Wifezilla]

You can have mine. I gave it up 2 years ago

 

[agnes_day]

ooh ill take it!
i love sugar so much..i could live off of it. i have bought pop that is made with "real" sugar and it tasted exactly the same and cost more.