Timeline for Why does having a soda tax seem so hard to achieve in the US?
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| Jun 17, 2020 at 9:20 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| May 29, 2018 at 7:55 | comment | added | DrCopyPaste | @jamesqf okay, I can see that being a thing but then I don't think this is an inherent difference to the sugar issue (provided there is some kind of publicly founded health service) | |
| May 28, 2018 at 18:53 | comment | added | jamesqf | @DrCopyPaste: I think it's more of a high-level effect, as in "I hate those stinky smokers, so I'm not bothered if the government taxes the heck out of them, and if it cuts down the second-hand smoke, all the better." | |
| May 28, 2018 at 8:23 | comment | added | DrCopyPaste | @jamesqf I am not sure that holds, because second hand smoke is not prevented by introducing a tax, it is like saying "you are harming me, but you are paying for it so I am okay with it" | |
| S May 27, 2018 at 7:04 | history | suggested | Giacomo1968 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 26, 2018 at 19:08 | comment | added | jamesqf | There are two differences between a tobacco tax and a soda tax. First, smokers were nearly always a minority of the US population - about 40% in the 1960s, before the health effects were widely known. Second, most non-smokers find second-hand smoke unpleasant. So you had a significant share of the voters who would benefit directly from curbing smoking - a share that only grew as more people became former smokers. With soda, you have a large fraction who drink it at least occasionally, and drinking it doesn't really affect non-drinkers. | |
| May 25, 2018 at 12:49 | comment | added | cHao | @Luaan: I started smoking entirely because i liked the BF's clove cigarettes. :) Might be the exception that proves the rule, though; i apparently wasn't quite addicted either, at least not in the way most smokers i know are. | |
| May 25, 2018 at 12:30 | comment | added | Luaan | @cHao Well, if it really did stop them from consuming tobacco (already a very unlikely prospect), I suspect almost all of them would just switch to something else. Almost all the people I know that quit smoking just started drinking or consuming vast amounts of sugar instead. There's plenty of research to suggest that most addiction habits aren't related to addictive substances - you're addicted because you're replacing something missing in your life. Do you know anyone who started smoking because they liked cigarettes/smoking? Or did they just want to be "cool", hit it with the crowd...? | |
| May 23, 2018 at 22:09 | comment | added | cHao | Re: smoking tax being in stages...it's probably less that it would "scare away too many smokers at once", and more that it would look too much like extortion and/or profiteering. These are addicts you're taxing, after all; most of them aren't capable of quitting cold turkey. | |
| May 23, 2018 at 14:59 | history | edited | DrCopyPaste | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 23, 2018 at 14:57 | comment | added | DrCopyPaste | @MSalters yes you are right, I meant consistent, thank you. I think I may have exaggerated the "not everybody's conviced" bit, but is it really a strawman, not just a bad exaggeration? I rephrased it, hope it's better now, English is not my first language ;) | |
| May 23, 2018 at 14:14 | comment | added | MSalters | "It does not convince everybody" is a strawman. It has to convince a meaningful number of people. Even convincing a minority might justify the tax. Your second point is probably a translation error - did you means "consistent" instead of "consequential"? | |
| May 23, 2018 at 13:46 | history | edited | DrCopyPaste | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 23, 2018 at 12:36 | history | edited | DrCopyPaste | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 23, 2018 at 12:07 | history | edited | DrCopyPaste | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 23, 2018 at 11:50 | history | answered | DrCopyPaste | CC BY-SA 4.0 |