Anyone with at least one half of their brain still functioning knows that drinking something packed with sugar, sodium, and other chemicals only Walter White could translate too much can’t be good for you. Anyone who has stopped drinking soda outright most likely notices that within a week they’ve lost 5-10lbs of water weight because all of the sodium has finally been flushed from their system.
All that being said, I can’t help but throw up in my mouth a little when I hear ‘man on the street’ interviews where an ‘average New Yorker’ is asked about the proposed ban on soft-drinks over 16oz and actually agrees with it. Now mind you, there are several reasons that don’t involve nanny state bullshit which justify such an action:
- Decreasing litter.
- Decreasing pollution by producing fewer containers over 16oz.
- Increasing tax revenue by forcing people to buy more soft drinks in separate containers.
That’s right. I’m of a mind that this has less to do with promoting healthy living and more to do with increasing tax revenue to the city of New York. If Bloomberg’s plan had ANYTHING to do with health, he would have either imposed a higher tax on soft drinks, or banned them outright.
See, there are certain things that when a tax increase is proposed, people will not argue – such as cigarettes. Try it on something a greater portion of your population enjoys and there is sure to be backlash. Smaller sodas generally cost more per liter than larger ones (compare a 16oz bottle of Coke to a 2-liter bottle), sales tax is a percentage of the total price of the product, so by eliminating the lower cost option Bloomberg effectively increases the tax revenue by forcing people to buy more small bottles, as well as increasing the revenue from deposits. Now while everyone knows you can take your bottle to one of those machines and get your $.05 back, how many of us actually do it? How many people in NYC actually do it? Exactly.
Don’t forget about the retailers… they’ll now have plenty more space on their shelves and refrigerators to store even MORE soda and greater variety… or the manufacturers that will end up selling more soda because of this ban. Follow the money my friends, Bloomberg is just as crooked as any other politician, he’s just better and weighing the odds.
The kicker is, the only way to push this through is to accept a restriction on personal liberty – and Bloomberg isn’t an idiot. Raising taxes in an election cycle is a mistake. Imposing a ban at the cost of personal liberty (which the American population doesn’t seem to give a shit about) because it will supposedly improve your health… well that’s a no brainer!
