Fat People, Don't Live in New York

[carpesensum]

NY Governor Justifies Obesity TaxIn summary, he notices a scientific correlation between the number of sugary drinks one consumes and the odds of being obese. This isn't an unusual correlation. He also notes that the current rate of obesity is causing a strain on health care resources. He then compares the obesity epidemic to that of the smoking

Comments

[femmephilosophe]

In a meeting at work the other day, we were discussing the ethics of something similar to this... but in more of a health care context... led to things like charging people more to park closer to stores or having coin operated elevators.

[carpesensum]

Which, in terms of health care, is great, but I'm wondering if this is going to drive a further line between the haves and the have nots. While the haves can afford to ride the elevators and park closer and buy whatever they want, the have nots are then forced to park farther away, take the stairs, etc. I also have a fear that we're punishing the wrong people. People tend to buy soda and sugary beverages because it's cheaper- two-liters of soda are a dollar fifty while a gallon of milk is four dollars. By taxing the two-liters of soda, suddenly we're asking people to pay two-fifty for soda while milk still is four dollars a gallon. (Stupid English units...) So I feel like we should be concerned with the high price of healthier food as well as the low price of fattier food.

People already pay more to park closer to stores, in a sense- it's valet parking, and it's the haves that can afford to do so. It's terribly difficult to come up with an economical, ethically sound, realistic system for encouraging health.

[carpesensum]

One problem with this is that he's not addressing how much more expensive it is to then buy the healthier things. He's just making it more difficult to buy the cheaper things that are readily available. Now to buy a two-liter of soda is going to cost two dollars instead of one dollar, but a gallon of milk is still going to be four dollars. It doesn't make much sense.