What next...a "Fat" tax?

[1972vet]

This isn't a joke but I DO find it amusing. It will be interesting to see how the government can get away with that.

Don't want to turn this into any sort of debate but I have a better idea I think...consider a "user" tax as with tobacco.

They've nearly taxed tobacco companies out of business and used the same principal as their impetus that passed the legislation. Why not deal with the obesity problem in the same way...after all, it would lend credence to the concept used to pass the tobacco tax legislation.

Otherwise, there exists a disparity between the two examples of law. One penalizes the individual and the other penalizes the corporation. If the concept follows the same line of logical thought, then the employees of the State of Alabama should be in the clear but the corporation(s) responsible for their weight problem would have to pay the penalty much the same way as the tobacco corporations pay the penalty for smokers who become hospitalized from tobacco related illnesses.

So...here's my proposal:

Instead of imposing the penalty on the individual which is contrary to the original line of logical thought behind the tobacco tax, require a user tax on all "Big Mac" types of junk food products. With each purchase, require the vendors to collect an additional $2.00 per product.

The added "user" tax can then be collected by the government as the tobacco tax is, and used for the health care needs of us poor people who fell victim to the danger of not having any "fattening" labels on their products.

What I find wrong with the idea that compensation should be exacted for lost productivity due to death and disease is that death and disease is inevitable for us all...so, using this same warped logic, I'll bet we can expect the government to one day impose a "death" tax.

Well...it could happen

I can't help but wonder how long it takes some genius politician to take this up as a "cause" and include it in an election campaign. I can see it now...an oil tycoon with a southern drawl holding up a cardboard chart showing the large numbers of tax dollars lost from the collective corporate earnings tax while the individual "user" tax has been in effect and shows a rather slim number of dollars by comparison.

...and I'm sure s/he'd say, "If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes."