Wildsky, I was equally unhappy about the cigarette tax. I am really unhappy about my insurance provider's plan to up the month rates for smokers. It just starts that slippery slope. The gov't has no business telling people how to live their lives.
But again, I don't think cigarettes are a genetic thing. My arguments aren't against the soda tax (which I also disagree with and find to be exactly the same as the cigarette tax). My arguments were against the poster who said that they should just tax fat people and be done with it. Or that they should jack up the insurance rates of fat people and leave everyone else alone. Fat hatred is a form of discrimination. It's actually the last socially acceptable form of discrimination in this country. It is really easy for skinny people to be smug about their weight when to a certain extent they just got lucky. We have no idea why a person is overweight. It could be bad genetics, bad education, a huge medical problem or just gluttony and greed. As a society we go straight to "Oh, they have no self-control and are just pigs."
When I was 22 I was diagnosed with Crohns. The only treatment that worked was high doses of steroids. One side effect of prednisone is weight gain. In one year I gained 60+ pounds and went from an athletic size 10/12 to a size 16 (and it has been a downhill slide ever since.) it was a horrible year. None of my clothes fit. As a young woman I had to start shopping in the Fat Lady section and all the clothes looked like old ladies. I remember crying and crying that year because I was fat and ugly. My social life pretty much tanked. Was it my fault that I gained 60+ pounds? I don't really think so. Neither Crohns or prednisone was my choice. I was just hanging on trying to live a functional life. While I was sick as a dog and fat ass a pig, I'm sure the public's opinion of my was that I was just lazy and a slug.
Fast forward almost 20 years- Hey, I'm still fat. I still have Crohns. I still have a hard time eating most vegetables. Carbs don't irritate my gut. Veggies and protein do. So do I eat the in the most healthy way and lose weight or do I eat so that I can get out of the bathroom like a normal human and go have a normal life? Do I take the drugs that make me feel better and constantly pack on weight or do I drop the drugs, drop the weight and feel rotten all the time? How do you pick? Soooooo, I pick fat and functional over skinny and sick.
Should I be taxed for this? Do a get a rebate because I have medical reasons? Will I have to were a special tag that says I have a dispensation to not be taxed? Ahhhhh, the slippery slope we slide down when we start taxing based on body type.
It's bad enough that our gov't feels that they can pass "sin taxes" on whatever they don't like. But when we start thinking that it is appropriate to tax PEOPLE that are unlike us, we start down a dangerous path. At that point we are all fair game for persecution from others.
The sin taxes don't work as a deterrent. If our gov't really wanted to help us they would quit subsidising the products that make us fat and would start subsidising the healthy options. They would quit making it hard for people to raise their own food and would start encouraging us to grow healthy fruits and veggies (and chickens!). Imagine if you could get "food stamps" for fruit trees and vegetable seeds.
It all has to do with attitude. I don't for a second believe that the gov't is taxing sodas to make me healthier. They just want more money.
