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This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive more briefings and a guide to the section daily in your inbox. | This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive more briefings and a guide to the section daily in your inbox. |
Regular readers of this newsletter know that I believe soda taxes are a very good idea. Soda is probably the single biggest contributor to the obesity epidemic of the last few decades; it is liquid sugar with no nutritional value and increases the country’s medical costs. Soda taxes cut consumption while avoiding a heavy-handed approach — like banning certain portion sizes — that rub many people the wrong way. | Regular readers of this newsletter know that I believe soda taxes are a very good idea. Soda is probably the single biggest contributor to the obesity epidemic of the last few decades; it is liquid sugar with no nutritional value and increases the country’s medical costs. Soda taxes cut consumption while avoiding a heavy-handed approach — like banning certain portion sizes — that rub many people the wrong way. |
Now, soda taxes are on a big winning streak. A penny-per-ounce tax passed by landslide margins in three different California cities this year (Oakland, San Francisco and Albany). A few days later, legislators in Cook County, Ill., where Chicago is, passed a soda tax with the same rate. Health-obsessed Boulder, Colo., passed a two-cent tax this year, and Philadelphia has a 1.5 cent tax. | |
The soda industry isn’t finished fighting these taxes. It has shown a willingness to spend millions, often to broadcast false claims about a tax. But wealthy public-health advocates on the other side, like Michael Bloomberg, have joined the fight. Up next may be the first statewide push for such a tax, in Illinois. | The soda industry isn’t finished fighting these taxes. It has shown a willingness to spend millions, often to broadcast false claims about a tax. But wealthy public-health advocates on the other side, like Michael Bloomberg, have joined the fight. Up next may be the first statewide push for such a tax, in Illinois. |
One of the best parts of the taxes is that they don’t even seem to hurt the budgets of many low-income families, because they respond by drinking less soda — which is why the soda industry hates the taxes and the rest of us should welcome them. | One of the best parts of the taxes is that they don’t even seem to hurt the budgets of many low-income families, because they respond by drinking less soda — which is why the soda industry hates the taxes and the rest of us should welcome them. |
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