When Can a Tax Be a Good Thing?

When do our bad decisions become a federal concern? When they interfere with the personal lives of other Americans. America has drunk-driving laws, FDA warnings, and product-recalls to ensure the safety of innocent people. Soon we may have something similar concerning the sugar we consume. Each year we grow fatter, further taxing the healthcare system and creating a very large problem: expensive medicine, far more expensive than what many of us can afford.

Raising taxes on soft drinks because of their sugar content would appear to bring our nation full circle. After all, our forefathers threw a tea party and started a revolution to buck high taxes; sugar being apart of a string of British taxation on her colonies.
[The Sugar Act]

Today our own government is considering taxing sugar, specifically soda. This may seem like just another way to bleed us of our money (taxation without representation), considering millions of people drink pop each day, but the deeper issue has little to do with taxes, or even money itself, but our health.

A lesson learned from Tobacco taxes.

Earlier this decade tobacco-related deaths reached over 600,000 per year. [Annual Causes of Death in the United States]. This accounted for 18% of deaths in the United States. Then the government decided to put an extra tax on tobacco. They did this to gain needed revenue for health programs and to make smokers think twice about buying their next pack. The less people smoked, the less they'd die from cancer or emphysema, and the less money would be wasted in the healthcare industry on preventable diseases. Today the government taxes each pack of cigarettes $1.01 [Single Largest Cigarette Tax Hike Goes Into Effect Wednesday].

Between the higher prices for cigarettes and the unceasing education of the dangers of smoking, cigarette use is down in America. In 2007, 360 billion cigarettes were smoked, a USDA estimate. In 2003 it was 400 billion, and in 1996 it was 487 billion. Chances are you know someone who smokes, and you know someone trying to quit. [Cigarette Consumed in the United States]

So why not tax sugar like tobacco?

Tobacco isn't the only killer in America, and today, it's not even the biggest. Poor diets that lead to obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes account for a majority of the leading causes of death in the United States. [Leading Causes of Death]

Sugar is a staple in the average American's poor diet. 22 teaspoons are consumed on average per day [Cut Back, Way Back, on Sugar, says Heart Group]. This figure should be closer to 6 teaspoons a day. A sign that things may not be getting better? Teenagers consume 34 teaspoons a day, most of which comes from soda. Every pop you drink nets you 8 teaspoons of sugar, or about 128 empty calories.

Will a "sugar" tax make a difference?

Sugar is not necessary to our diet, and it is obvious too much of a tasty thing will kill you. Also obvious: if the government taxes candy bars and soft drinks, we'll have to pay more for them. But will this be a bad thing? If people continue to cast away the warnings and eat and drink junk food, it'll hit their pockets hard, while providing a much needed source of money for healthcare. If Americans know what's good for their health and bank accounts, they'll switch to juice and healthier snacks, ones not fortified with sugar to hook shoppers. Doing so we will save money and live healthier, longer lives.

Some may think this is just another case of Big Government interfering in our personal lives, but it's clear to me Americans need a little incentive to save themselves. Something has to be done, and the answer is clear: Stop eating junk, however it's done.

Sources:
1. The Sugar Act, The Massachusetts Historical Society
2. Annual Causes of Death in the United States, Drug War Facts.org
3. Associated Press, Single Largest Cigarette Tax Hike Goes Into Effect Wednesday, Fox News.com
4. Cigarettes Consumed in the United States, Cigarette Butt Litter
5. Leading Causes of Death, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
6. Associated Press, Cut Back, Way Back, on Sugar, says Heart Group, MSNBC.com