Soda Tax - I am for it

Below is link to the Middletown Press letter I wrote supporting a tax on soda:

http://www.middletownpress.com/opinion/20170515/letter-soda-tax-could-help-ameliorate-growing-health-care-crisis
Rumor has it that there is resistance to a tax on soft drinks due to it being seen as regressive, as poor people buy the most soda, and would then pay the most tax. Of course, if people replace drinking soda with drinking tap water they would end up spending less and being healthier, too. Opposition to a soda tax is a perverse form of advocacy for poor people. It is as much as saying the tax is regressive, and diabetes is progressive, so let's stay with diabetes.

The poor end up losing by maintaining the status quo, as well as anyone else who is drinking more soda than is healthy. It is really not a class issue. Soda is bad for human beings. Would you feed it to your dog? No. Why is it OK to load up your children on it?

Opposing attempts to reduce soda consumption erodes confidence in these leaders on the whole issue of taking on the epidemic of diabetes. Treatment of this condition is expensive, so much so that the increased prevalence of diabetes challenges our capacity to provide universal health coverage. Leaders who ask money to be spent providing health coverage for lower income people, while opposing a measure that would reduce these costs on the basis that poor people should be allowed to continue getting sick, as a sort of privilege, undermine the larger social compact.


There is a cost to society when people choose to poison themselves. It is wise to start collecting the premium on such self-destructive behavior before the bills come due, especially if it guides people to avoid the tax, and the costs to their health. Leaders should guide people to make better choices, or stop pretending to be leaders.

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