Tax Junk Food/Regulate Contents?

[Kasz216]

dsgrue3 said:

famousringo said:

You're deluding yourself if you think other Americans' health doesn't impact your taxes. US government spending on health is 70% higher than spending on defence, that comes out of your income tax, and that's before we account for the increased cost of private health insurance premiums. The collective paying for the bad circumstances of the individual is the very nature of insurance. 

Yes, people who snack occaisionally will also see a tax, but since they aren't subsisting on a diet of Snickers bars, it won't be a susbstantial barrier to their occaisional enjoyment of bad food. That's the great thing about consumption taxes, they scale based on how heavy a consumer you are.

Perhaps another contrast would help you see how you'd be better off paying for fat people's health with a consumption tax rather than on your income tax and insurance premiums.

There are two taxes which largely pay for roads where I live, property taxes to the city, and fuel taxes to the province. I rarely drive, so I don't have much use for roads, so you can see I might have an objection paying taxes for a good I rarely use. With the fuel tax, a consumption tax, this is not a problem. I don't drive, I don't burn gas, I don't pay tax to maintain roads. Even better, if I did drive, the tax scales based on what kind of vehicle I drive. A light, efficient hatchback burns less gas and causes less wear on the road than a huge SUV, so it's fair that the gas-guzzling SUV driver pays more tax to maintain roads.

But my property taxes pay no attention to whether I use the road or not, and has no regard for whether I'm using it lightly in a small sedan, or heavily in a large truck. That leaves me subsidizing the folks in my town who drive large vehicles. Not a very fair tax for me.

Right now, fat, unhealthy people are costing you money in income taxes and insurance premiums. Why should you be subsidizing their poor eating habits when a shift to a consumption tax would have individuals paying for their own unhealthy choices?

3) Roads

Couldn't give a damn about how Canadians pay for their roads, in America they are paid for through a gas tax which is only applicable when you fill your tank. This in no way relates to a food tax. Food taxes pay for nothing. Gas taxes pay for roads, which are something no one would dispute who uses them.

Actually roads are also paid locally through various local taxes like property taxes.... and the gas tax is one of the biggest examples of overcentralization that I can think of.

They get built on a federal level but maintained on a local level.  During the GFC a lot of roads went to gravel... and you basically see this all the time.

Senators looking to get their state a "share of the pie" will support completely illogical roads nobody needs.  The government will approve them.

The senator gets a boost for creating jobs in his state... and once the road is built it goes to shit because the local governments refuse to maintain it because it's a shitty road that almost nobody uses.

So it either naturally turns to grave or it gets bad enough and the city sends someone out to gravel it.