Report: 'Fat Tax' Could Curb Nation's Obesity Problem

reply to post by Thunder heart woman

If we have a nation of healthy and fit people, then what will the pharmaceutical industries do when they go broke? It just seems to me that they want to keep people sick and fat.

You are aware that there are more illnesses than just being obese right? People born with terminal illnesses that are genetic like Cystic Fibrosis that my older sister died from in 1999. Just forcing people to eat healthy will not extend their lives if it is their time. You can eat food that comes out of your own garden all your life and then just drop dead one day. Literally everything we eat that is made in a factory has stuff in it that will give you cancer, our system is rigged to kill people on purpose.

In days long passed people used to go out and work in the fields all day to farm and work with their crops because society ran on more agrarianism. Now everyone has to have an office job making 60k a year or more, or be a doctor, or lawyer. You rarely ever hear someone say "i wanna be a farmer when i grow up".

You can't just lay it all on the fat people, you have to lay it on the people who made them fat on high fructose corn syrup and all the other sh*t that made them this way in the first place and even then it could be genetic. Just automatically blaming them is shallow, they could have health problems that do not allow them to get fit, like thyroid or heart conditions.

I'm not addressing people born with genetic issues.

I'm addressing lifestyle disease that people give themselves through eating like pigs at the trough.

I work at a popular fast food place and I have seen people eating like pigs at a trough.

Breast cancer or other cancers are not the number one killer for women anymore. It's heart disease! It's lifestyle choices.

My mother, skinny as a rail nearly lost her life two years ago, eating fast food nearly all the time and drinking diet soda. She ended up in the ER with heart block, emergency double bypass. Cardiologist took me aside and told me straight up that it was all in her diet, and that he warned her when she came in with chest pains a year ago that she needed to change. But nope, she did not want to change. Now she is forced to change.

I'm tired of watching people I love around me drop from heart attacks and other problems because of the things in our food. It's extremely painful. I want to shake them from their sleep.

And by the way, I'm very sorry for your loss.

reply to post by neo96


" Big girls you are beautiful " ( Mika.) or " Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin world go round " ( Queen.) just trying to lighten things up a bit.
Nothing wrong with a good appetite, as long as you get PLENTY OF EXCERCISE !!! I eat like a horse, including junk food, am six foot two inches and still under thirteen stone at age 56, Because I have two dogs that like a lot of exercise, between three and five hours walking per day, everyday....so you can eat what you want if you exercise accordingly..
P.s. I get to meet some nice lady dog walkers to chat to, as well !

reply to post by Erongaricuaro


Lol, raise the price of corn syrup? Ridiculous. The price is intentionally driven down.

The whole thing spirals downward. Monsanto owns most of the corn crop in the United States with the numbers growing every year. They lobbied for the Sugar Tax. It is in their best interest to make sure the high fructose corn syrup remain cheap and popular as it makes them mega bucks.

The corruption of it all is astounding, and I have no doubt in my mind that high fructose corn syrup is the leading cause of the rise in obesity, diabetes, and heart disorders. There is just too much "coincidence" there to be taken as lightly and ignorantly as people do.

There were people back in the day who were just as lazy and ate just as unhealthy as we do today, and our bodies were able to process what was put into them. Point is that today - our bodies to not process harmful chemicals too well, and HFCS is one of the most deadly and common of them all - it is in EVERYTHING!

Originally posted by neo96
First they came for the alcholics, and i did not speak out because i was not an alcoholic

Then they came for the smokers and i did not speak out because i was not a smoker

Then they came for the fatties and i did not speak out because i was not fat

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

Zeig Heil.

best post on this thread hands down!

As with any tax on something, it will soon suffer form mission creep. First sodas and chips, then what next? Oh, bagels aren't that healthy after all? Bagels, too. Bagels are made from bread, so let's tax all bread products. And butter. And fake butter. And butter flavored popcorn, butter-flavored anything. And vegetables, because many people put butter on them after they're cooked.

Get my point? It can't be allowed to happen. Read my lips: NO NEW TAXES.

This is why lawmakers need to be part-time, have a couple sessions a year and go back home to their regular jobs.

On our pursuit of happiness, the road narrows, because of interpersonal utility comparisons.

For a good discussion on interpersonal utility comparisons : mises.org...

I'd much rather they tax all the corporations that saturate the stores with all these fatty unhealthy foods. At least then they'd be able to get some kind of money out of something so stupid, as apposed to already taxing the people that probably have little to nothing left to take.

reply to post by dawnstar


Please, don't try to make McD's not look like the vile unhealthy food it is. Those "fatties" you complain about probably overeat. There's plenty of reasons why so many people are obese, I was explaining one way.

reply to post by adigregorio


And I guess fat people don't smoke?

reply to post by Auricom


I bet I can find alot of other resturants just as bad......
including some higher class joints!!!
as a general rule, once you work in a resturant for awhile, you tend to stay away from the food, or at least that was my experience while working for them, didn't matter if it was the mc donalds, or the truck stop I worked for......

you wouldn't alllow your owns family food to prepared under the same circumstances, but somehow, it's okay to conduct business in that manner.
an occasional mc donalds could very well not be any more unhealthy than the chicken stew that you prepare at home. since the entire food chain is being inaudated with a bunch of man made chemicals.

and even if you could ensure that your food chain is "safe", do you like incense, do you like that "fresh smell" that permeates your freshly washed clothes?? blankets, your clothes, and on and on...

and yet, it seems that it's always the establishments that are more prone to cater to the poorer individuals.

then you have those that are working so hard to gain the right to decide what those who receive aid should be, or should not be eating.

may I suggest that instead of griping about how unhealthy some people are eating, and how it's costing society money, we instead wake up and start demanding products that aren't chemical martinis. and instead of griping how other's actions is costing us so much, we start griping about how more and more people are seeming to be pushed into that position where they are gonna need your money to begin with!!!

like I said, when I grew up, we had weekly fish fries, with fish, fries, ect.....fried in lard!!!
meals were usually served with a desert. we used REAL BUTTER, which buy the way, if it wasn't so danged expensive, I would still be using since I got a feeling that the margarine that they pawned off on us as the healthy alternative is far less health than the butter they were trying to protect us from!! breakfast was just as likely, if not more likely to be eggs, bacon, pancakes with real maple syrup!! not a box of cereal, with is fake sugar and "daily supply of vitamins and minerals"!!

and like I stated before, our parents smokes everywhere, heck, my mom was a bartender and I spent more time in smoke filled bars when I was a kid than I have as an adult!! I don't believe I knew anyone that had a problem with asthma! and "obesity" what there was of it, was nothing like we have today!!!

the cigarettes, the mc donalds, ect...are all just scapegoats that they are throwing out to direct our attention from the fact that the cheap products that they are pawning off on us are making us sick and killing us!!

Originally posted by neo96
First they came for the alcholics,

Well crap, I'm out. Was hoping to get to at least 2 on this list.

-frowns and grabs his towel-

I'm tired of all these sin taxes myself.

But here's a hint:

It's not just the unhealthy foods that make you fat, all those healthy foods can make you fat as well.

It's called "Calories" and "food additives".

About the only thing that doesn't have calories in it is rabbit food.

Ahh makes me want to watch Demolition Man!!!!

reply to post by neo96


This policy will curb obesity as much as the law against theft or murder stopped people from committing those acts.

Instead this will just create a cash cow where they can milk their...cattle.

This is a crazy farm after all!

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
What exactly is the problem with this ?

If you don't want to pay the tax, then don't eat junk food; try something healthy instead.

It's people like you that make tyrants proud. If you don't like getting strip searched at the airport, don't fly. If you don't like that your e-mails are all monitored, don't e-mail. If you don't like getting tazed, keep your mouth shut. If you want to stay alive, obey. Go along to get along is the American way, right pal?

reply to post by muzzleflash


We are living in the largest zoo in the world government is the "care takers".

Second.

how ignorant

if you have health insurance YOU ALREADY ARE PAYING FOR IT !!!!!!!!!

obesity causes many many health problems that dd to the cost of every policy in the country

this way, maybe it goes down eventually

it's sad it would have to come to this tbh

Originally posted by Starwise
Ahh makes me want to watch Demolition Man!!!!

I don't know about you, but if Demolition Man ever happens I will be with Edgar Friendly having a rat burger.

Originally posted by syrinx high priest

this way, maybe it goes down eventually

Seriously?

So taxing cigs led to people quitting?
Oh wait, more people smoke today than ever before in history.

Did taxing (fining) illegal dumping stop corporations from doing it? Or is it now considered a regular "business expense"?

This is so absurd, it's not even funny.

Should we tax people for being idiots? Would that make them smarter?

This is all about finding an excuse to fund the machine. Let's be realistic please.

Originally posted by muzzleflash

Originally posted by syrinx high priest

this way, maybe it goes down eventually

Seriously?

So taxing cigs led to people quitting?
Oh wait, more people smoke today than ever before in history.

Did taxing (fining) illegal dumping stop corporations from doing it? Or is it now considered a regular "business expense"?

This is so absurd, it's not even funny.

Should we tax people for being idiots? Would that make them smarter?

This is all about finding an excuse to fund the machine. Let's be realistic please.

edit on 19-5-2012 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

edit on 19-5-2012 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

I believe that the number of smokers has gone down in the states. of course, the obesity rate could give us a clue as to what habit they picked up to replace the smoking habit...

supposedly, at least some of the money that was paid by the cig companies was supposed to go towards helping smokers quit smoking. I looked into the cost of the chantex....lol...
you'd think that if they seriously wanted people to quit, some of the money would have went towards subsidies to help people pay for such aides...

I've looked into what the virginia uses the money for, and well, I haven't found anything yet that is really that advantageous to smokers.....although some of it goes towards helping areas that were affected economically so they can build up another industry to replace what they've lost with the tobacco industry....

there is kind of alot of garbage really.