Is it time for a 'Fat Tax'?

Actually, I heard that secondhand smoke does little harm to other people.

There are already very high taxes on gasoline. Taxes should not be games - punishments and rewards for being efficient, lazy, rich, fat...
Taxes are there to make our government function. Right now it taxes too much and I would prefer everyone paid a flat income tax and that there were no property taxes (because with them you can never really own land, you're just renting from the government.) The government should be solving it's budget problems instead of trying to find new avenues on which to spend the money of its people.

Thomas - I think we have reached an impasse, with little or no chance of either converting the other. I salute a worthy opponent.

My thanks & regards,

Graham

I'm sad to hear that, but I'm saluting back of course.

-- Thomas

I say that all of us overweight, self-indulgent, lazy, good-for-nothing, middle-aged men (damn, i love myself) should get together and start a movement to tax the physically fit and nutritionally conscious as the inimical enemies of the family farm.

I must confess at this point to being neither physically fit or nutritionally conscious. I'm not overweight, but that's through smoking cigs & drinking tea, not eating vegetables and jogging...

I'll take this opportunity to paraphrase an old expression, reflecting Thomas' earlier comments about the shift in human nutritional needs?

Outside every thin person is a fat person trying to get in....

I support a premium tax on things like carbonated beverages but not to discourage people from drinking them as the goal (it's part of what's on the way for my goal) but to reduce the prices of things like juices.

The food I'd like to eat is more expensive in America partly because of the differences in the volume in terms of consumption.

I support it not because I want to change other people's lives, but because I want better food at greater availability.

There was a rice bowl commercial in the states that had an ad campaign theme that I really associate with. It was based on "lunch disappeared".

These days in America it's hard to find the home cooking that I like. I like fastfood but for me there are few options other than fastfood and it bothers me enough that I want to leave the country (in other places a home cooked meal with steak etc is cheaper than McDonalds and more readily available).

Craven, why don't you just learn to cook?

I know how to cook very well. I do not have the time to cook.

I'm with Craven on this one. Tax the soda, candy, etc, to square the price of natural alternatives. While you're at it; tax the gasoline to square the price of alternative fuels. For disclosure: I'm 6 feet tall, 165 pounds. I lost 30 pounds over the last year by permanently dropping soda and ice cream out of my diet (accept for occasions). I'm not against any type of food, but I like the idea of "healthy choices" being cost effective choices for the consumer.

Ps- and tax the hell out of my stupid cigarettes!

Please you guys saying tax the hell out of things to whose good is the tax going? Build a bigger gov to handle and distribute the additional revenue. I wanna tea party, it is a diuretic (sp)

Craven, make the time to cook.

http://www.slowfood.com

cjhsa,

At home, when I want to cook, I cook. I do not have the option to cook my breakfast or my lunch as there are no available facilities to do so.

cdk
not even microwave?

You can cook eggs and bacon in a nuke.

I do not have a microwave available to me, and I definitely do not consider using a microwave to be cooking. i.e. when I say "homecooked meal" I do not envision a nukeable.

Hell I can get good food, but my bitching is about the price and availability of it.

I'd have to both go out of my way and pay more than I can afford.

yer gunna have to raise the price of $5.00 sex to $6.00 sex

Not sure bacon and eggs is better than most fast food, anyway!

I find Taquerias to be the healthiest of the "fast food" type places. Tell 'em to leave the rice out of your burrito and you've got a fairly balanced, tasty meal. You won't find fresh cut salsa at Mickey D's.

I have saved mucho deneros over the years by cooking extra at night and bringing my own lunch the next day. Just heat and eat.

Dlowan, if you're on a reduced carb diet, bacon and eggs in the company microwave can be a real time/money saver in the morning.