Obesity Taxes
The Bogus War on Fat People
By Daniel Muniz

The war on obesity has finally embarked on a route that so many trendy crusades typically end up taking. Apparently, the best way to fight the war on fat is to tax it. State legislators in New Mexico are considering a bill to levy a modest tax on television sets and video games. The funds would be used for educational purposes while the aim of this sin tax is to discourage people from spending too much time being a couch potato.

Of course plenty of other states are considering similar measures. After all, sin taxes are the easiest tax hikes to pass because they are palatable to the public and that is why politicians love them.

The big problem I have with trendy crusades is that nearly all off them are nothing more than fluff with no substance. I understand the aspirations of the starry-eyed idealists who have good intentions to make our world a better place to live in. But as often is the case, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Right now, the obesity warriors are being craftily manipulated by duplicitous politicians who are endlessly scheming of imaginative ways to reach into the taxpayer’s wallet. Regrettably, many of these activists willingly want to be abused in this perverse fashion because as with so many other crusades, they become intoxicated with the enormous political influence that is wielded. As a result, many of them allow themselves to be duped.

But more to the point, what is this feel-good legislation going to accomplish?

People are not going to stop buying television sets and Hollywood is not going to go out of business. Additionally, people are not going to throw away their video games and gigantic corporations such as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are not going to stop making video game consoles.

That is a very harsh truth that the obesity warriors refuse to accept.

And even if there was any kind of slump in these industries, free enterprise is going to correct itself. The beauty of the free market is that it will create more clever advertising and develop better products (like very low cost high definition plasma wide screens) and better services (such as new TV shows that are worth watching).

Just like smoking, the only way to really stop a “sin” is to ban it.

Monster taxes on cigarettes will invariably create a dent in usage but inelastic markets are always going to have a solid group of faithful consumers. So in other words, we are not going to get rid of smokers just like we are not going to get rid of people who watch television and play video games.

But that is not the way that disingenuous politicians see it.

These slick public officials love the additional revenue and they are more than happy to stand behind a crusade and talk about improving the quality of life. And they are also thrilled that these crusaders are willing to mask the machinations for more taxes. All this is fine and dandy as long as the sin isn’t outlawed.

Now there is a novel solution. Why not ban it altogether?

If smoking is so terrible and so dangerous, why not outlaw it? And why not outlaw television sets and video game consoles because after all, aren’t they one of the root causes of obesity?

While starry-eyed idealists would be ecstatic over such draconian legislation, their hypocritical lawmaker allies would be aghast in shock because their revenue stream would come to an end.

It’s great to have a gargantuan tobacco settlement but how is the tobacco industry going to pay for it?

Well, they need to keep selling more cigarettes. At least everybody wins. And it is irrelevant that big chunks of the state tobacco settlements went to pay for things completely outside of healthcare and prevention.

The same goes for television sets and video games. It is great for politicians to tell the public that they care about the well being of society but don’t give up your electronics purchases.

The bottom line is that the war on fat people is a sham.

It is nothing more than for a devious way for corrupt politicians to scam more money out of the taxpayer. For the obesity warriors, their heart may be in the right place (although I doubt it for most of them) but their political supporters are simply using this paranoia for their own purposes.

If these activists really want to stop obesity, then it is time for them to engage the public in honest debate using real facts instead of resorting to dubious coercion tactics that only benefits sleazy politicians. These sin taxes are nothing more than an underhanded way to steal more taxpayer money.

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