Should sugar-sweetened beverages be taxed?

下面Essay学霸教员组为大家整理一篇 的代写范文- Should sugar-sweetened beverages be taxed? 供大家参考学习。这篇文章讲述的是有许多错误的假设导致不明智的政策，含糖饮料税就是其中之一。随着美国肥胖问题的恶化，政府开始瞄准苏打水公司，将造成肥胖的原因归咎于苏打水和其他含糖饮料的消费增加。在美国有30多个州对苏打水和其他含糖饮料征税，肥胖问题仍然存在（）。由于未能反思税收本身的有效性，一些政府官员试图增加税收数额来解决这一问题，但这无济于事。总体而言，食糖税收政策基于错误的假设和不合理的原因。原因如下。

Should sugar-sweetened beverages be taxed?

There are many false assumptions that lead to unwise policies, the tax on sugary drinks is one of them. As the obesity problem in the US goes worse, the government started to target the soda companies, blaming the cause of obesity on the increased consumption of sodas and other sugary drinks. With over 30 states in the US levying tax on sodas and other sugary drinks, the problem of obesity persists (). Failing to reflect on the validity of the tax itself, some government officials try to increase the amount of tax to fix the problem, which is not helping in any way. Overall, the sugar tax policy is based on false assumptions and unjustified causes. Below are the reasons.

The effectiveness of the soda tax to reduce consumption is questionable. Firstly, most of the taxes in the 33 US states are too low to reduce consumption effectively. The average of 5.2% increase on the sales price is often neglected by the consumers. The price for 24 cans, which are 288 ounces, is only $4 (). Even if a person spends $20 on soda drinks monthly, which equals to 120 cans of soda, a 50% tax is only $10 extra. Such an increase can hardly create any lasting influence in the consumption behaviors. It is just incredible how advocates of soda taxes fail to calculate such a simple math problem.

The public consumption of sugary drinks has been dropping since 2000 (). However, the obesity rate over the 15 years have remained at the same high level. The rate of diabetes even increase in 2010. If the soda tax is effective as it claims to be, how come the obesity rate is so persistent? The diet of a person is composed of multiple elements that vary daily, which means blaming a single food intake for a disease is completely irresponsible. A perfectly fit person can have a higher than average soda consumption level if he prefers, but remain healthy and in shape. With no direct correlation between soda consumption, the policy of soda taxes is only based on unsubstantiated bias.

If the reasons for obesity and diabetes are so simple that can be solve by soda taxes, it should have for years. Many people who blame soda for diabetes and obesity should be better informed about the causes of the diseases, which are highly correlated with the life style choices and the diet of the people in general. According to a professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health, diabetes is a multi-factorial disease which is not caused by single reasons, such as soda consumption. Soda taxes would probably be helpful in the prevention of the diabetes, if a person drink soda as a replacement of water. But who does that? In fact, all food and drinks that contain added sugar can become the cause of obesity and diabetes. It is just unfair and unjustified for sodas to be single out, labeled unhealthy, and targeted alone.

Overall, soda taxes are neither substantiated with scientific facts, nor justified by the actual effects of it. It is simply a policy out of the blind rush for public health. In fact, targeting a single food type would hardly make any lasting health impacts, since the diet of a person is so varied. However, a different and more effective type of tax can be introduced, which is the tax on added sugar. Levying tax on added sugar is a much more direct and fair approach compared to soda taxes, since excessive sugar consumption is not only a problem for sodas, but for almost all food types. The tax on added sugar will lead to a reformulation trend in the processed food industry, shaping the diet of the US public into a healthier one.

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