New York thinking of doing an Obesity Tax

This has to be one of worst idea I've ever heard.Why should I be taxed for drinking regular soda while those who choose to drink diet soda get free pass? Aren't they both unhealty in one way or another?

i believe it is a good thing . food with more fat will cost you more money in future .this taxing policy can reduce the extra medical cost.

Why not lower the tax on veggies and salad stuff? Why not give free memberships to lose weight clubs? Why not have Richard Simmons or a weight loss guru show up in the poor people's neighborhood and get them interested in getting better health? It is all right to raise taxes on junk food, but if they are unable to buy more healthful food because they have not lowered its cost, what good is it? They could promote a community garden and get the people to have a little patch so they could grow better food to eat.

Great. As if things weren't expensive enough in New York. ...well SOMETHING's gonna pay for that heavy surveillance system they have in that state. As if there's not enough corruption and crime going on...lets just spit in the eye of the poor who're lucky to even be able to pay for junk food and in the faces of those who manage to stay healthy and like to treat themselves on occasion. It's NOT the place of the government to try to influence how we eat. If we're killing ourselves, that's our business. If people want to change that, then by God they should start putting the pressure on the companies that make food, grocery stores, and start promoting healthy living dangit. It's made a little headway in that the movement's at least laid roots with these last few years... Remember prohibitionist times in history? Lets not try something worse than that, eh? ..taxing something people consume is a sure way to make it flourish, anyway. At least via crime and alternative means of getting at it if they pursue it aggressively.

And you would be right too. I really don't think they care if you are fat or not. I don't think they care what we eat. What they do care about is how fat the state wallet is.

Fruits and veggies aren't taxed because people need to eat. Up until recently no food was taxed then suddenly they found a way to tax junk food. Taxing junk food and raising the tax is just a way to get money into the states coffers. I like junk food. I'll buy it once in a while irregardless of cost. Why should I pay tax on a pack of chips and not an roll of bread? They are both food. They have the same number of calories. Why not tax dried fruit? It's very dense in sugars and calories. Why won't trail mix, dried fruits, halva, marzipan, peanut butter etc. be taxed when they are more calorie dense than soda or chips? I buy really small snack sized portions and not the huge "value packs" because I'm watching my weight. The small 100 calorie packs are hard to find. Most places only carry the larger 300-400 calorie packs or sell the small ones in a bundle for kids lunches. If they were really concerned with obesity they would have more small portion junk foods available. Once upon a time the small packs were the norm and the larger packs were called family packs. They were meant to be divided up and feed a whole family not just one person. It's really portion distortion that's casing obesity. What is now a fast food kids meal used to be a normal adult meal. I buy a kids Happy Meal at McDonald's a few times a year when I'm in the next town. (No Micky D's in my town) They actually ask if I want to super size it. Huh? No! I don't want to super size it and double or triple the calories. I order a kids meal because it's an appropriate portion for an adult. I would love to have 3 times the amount of french frys for a few cents more but it's to many calories. I love french frys. They are a treat. But I'm not about to eat 1000 calories of frys in a single sitting.

Wow!! An obesity tax, or Tax on junk food. Well, that is unreal and how would they decifer from this. Here in WA state there is a Tax on Soda in the bottles, but no other Grocery items. Interesting how they can tax the Soda like this most places and it does not stop anyone. And how would they decipher what is Junk Food and what is not? This just for sure sounds like another way to easily fund someone else's pocketbook for sure while not caring about anyone else as well.

I hope that they are truly concern about peoples' health and not just trying to come up with something to increase their tax collection. I don't think that this will stop people from buying junk foods though.

They did it not too long ago with the price of a pack of ciggarettes. $1.50 per pack increase. They say they want people to quit smoking but they know that they wont and that it is alot more money in the budget. I dont think the government has the right to make us buy less of something because it is not good for us. (and I dont believe they care) I believe it is 100% about the money.

I am curious will they be taxing flour,chocolate,sugar, everything from the baking area if not the only sensible thing is make your own lol This is just rediculous and you are absolutely right the government has no say so what we eat. tsk tsk they should be ashamed of themselves. If I was in New York I would be slapping down a law suit just for the principle. I would think this is a form of prejudice against obese people.

Ask the smokers...we still buy them, maybe buy the cheaper ones, but we still buy them. It's the same argument I use for banning smoking....it's no one's right to choose how others live their life. It's funny because a while back when the controversy of the smoking ban came up everyone said the next thing would be obesity....because you know most non smoker's could care less since they do not smoke....but now they are going for the Fries...maybe they will think about how wrong it is for the government to impose such a ridiculous act of control.

Well the healthy foods are expensive so why not make the junk ones in the same line. Things are getting bad and they need to implement something and this is the only way to put some money back in the kitty. Remember that it has been depleted. I am only sorry for those who can only afford these things. And then again people should start go back in the cooking days. Having a nice meal for the children when they come home from school. Mixing those nice natural juices. These kids nowadays don't know about these living and need to be able to fight these diseases that is going around. The Immune Systems need to be build back.

I really wish the government would butt out of our personal lives. Let the insurances companies charge a higher premium for people whose bad habits cause medical problems instead of taxing us. Not everyone abuses the use of sodas and junk foods. Besides, fat people don't have to eat junk to get fat. It's their bad habits and lack of exercise that cause obesity. When I was young and active, I use to order two of the fast food restaurant's big hamburgers and two fries and I never gained weight. It was when I stopped being active that I started gaining weight and I ate less. This reason for taxing is just an excuse for get more of New Yorker's money.

I don't think it has anything to do with your eating habits. It has to do with getting more of your money. Give them time and they'll tax you for blowing your nose or excreting gas.

If they lowered the cost of healthy foods, it might make a slight difference.

Frankly, I'd rather see them make foods that are healthy cost less. There are some programs that do that a bit - WIC for instance, which will pay for dairy products and whole grain cereals, but overall, food that is little more than empty calories tends to be the cheapest. It's a really sad fact that we're going to see obesity rates climb even higher as more families fill in their weakened food budgets with 39 cent mac & cheese and 19 cent ramen noodles. I think legislating diet is something like trying to legislate morality. If the additional taxes are earmarked for, say, nutrition programs for the public schools, I might actually be in favor of it. The fact is that if we can teach good nutrition to kids, we WILL raise a healthier generation with far lower health care costs for everyone in the country. But hey, I'm a loony leftie. What do I know?

I think that the government is making it harder for us to make our own choices. Next thing you know they will want us to recieve permission to purchase gasoline or food so that they can decide if we need it and once they do what type of tax they should levy on it. Seems like that is all the government wants to do.

LMAO!! That will never work. If making it cost more would stop people then there would be no smokers in the world either.

Maybe in the very short term this will work like for about a month. But after that people will crave again for the same old things. Even with the financial crisis, it's not as if New Yorkers are from a third world country like ours wherein a jump of a single dollar or cent and everybody will be affected.