Chris, did you ever take the time to wonder whether the people who “aren’t taking caring of themselves” are eager to pay extra SS taxes to pay for health zealots who want to live until they are 80 or 90? All the people who don’t take care of themselves and die in their late 60s and early 70s save the taxpayers a bunch of money in the long run. Anyone who wants to make an argument based on taxpayer cost is required to count ALL expenditures.

Of course, this might just usher in a golden age of soda becoming a luxury item. Or taboo, sort of like a high-fructose speakeasy. The possible unintended consequences thrill the imagination….

Just as clearly, eating organic bean sprouts and drinking soy milk? Unpatriotic! I always suspected this, but it’s nice to see a proof. Thanks Joe Biden, for helping me to see the light.

You made my day, Jimmi!

I find this kind of neopuritanism frightening. Because it shows how most folks don’t pay much attention to history, and how willingly they’ll go down a path of dictating what’s good for everyone (everyone ELSE, that is.

And you get a blank look from most folks when you try to give them a “next, they’ll go after x” argument. Wait’ll the bean counting reaches new levels in the next generation, and you get a bill in the mail for a $59 health insurance surcharge for the previous month, because that twinkie you bought on the 29th put you over your June quota.

Anyone else wonder why the soda tax doesn’t affect, oh, let’s say, the sales of JUICE BOXES? Crammed with sugar, generating mountains of trash, difficult to recycle? I’ll tell you why, because folks wouldn’t stand for it. So the real reason why NY is getting as oda tax is because they aren’t enough folks who refuse to tolerate such nonsense.

The really comical thing about the soda tax is that it’s targeted at the last generation. Soda’s share of the beverage market peaked years ago. The current trend in beverages (as in most food) is to suggest that hydration is an opportunity to self-medicate by managing your health and your mood and your energy. So if you pay $2 for a vitamin water instead of $1 for a coke, you’ll get some vitamins and some clever marketing prose on the label that pats you on the back for putting vitamins in your koolaid to crap out later that day.

If politicians really wanted to do everyday folks a favor, instead of just generate revenue under the guise of social engineering, what they’d do is pass a rule requiring all food and beverage outlets to sell at least one type of 12 or 16 oz bottles of water for 50 cents or 5% above cost. That way, thirsty folks wouldn’t get routinely screwed. Or they could even sell that mandated lower cost plain-jane water for a buck and direct the proceeds to one specific budget need, like say the local school budget.