I think we should start taxing people based on their weight. Weight tax, if you will. Healthy weight? Then you don’t have to get weight taxed. Overweight? Well, then you get taxed. And the taxes increase incrementally for every 5 pounds over healthy weight you are. Maybe if you don’t like it you’ll stop eating so much. In fact, maybe if everyone gets too burdened by the weight tax, fast food and other high-calorie crap will be eradicated all together. McDonalds will go out of business. It’ll be awesome. We can use that money we raise from your love handles to provide health insurance for orphans. What does one have to do with the other? Who cares??? This is America – you make an unhealthy lifestyle choice, the government should have the right to tax you exorbitantly for it.
Oh … wait. What? You think that’s unfair? Yeah, well, I think this is unfair:
Representatives from health advocacy groups Tuesday announced that a poll of 1000 likely voters showing widespread support for increasing the federal tobacco tax to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). According to the survey, 67 percent of voters “strongly support” a 75-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax to fund health care coverage for uninsured children.
(from a CQ.com article that I can’t link to)
[…] Raise the tax on cigarettes? Why not the overweight as well? Yellow is the Color. […]
I once told my friend, just as he was lighting up, “Smoking kills.” He responded, “So do strangers.” Touche, my friend.
And now for my soapbox speech…
Sure, if people were taxed for being overweight some might change their lifestyle and become more healthy. What’s wrong with that? I would much rather sit to a skinny person on the metro or on a plane than a not-so-skinny one. Being a normal weight has a lot of health benefits, and insurance companies are even starting to lower their premiums for people who stay within a certain BMI range. A health tax might not be such a bad thing, but that’s a separate issue entirely. Eating is a necessity and some people with weight problems are genetically predisposed to have a greater inclination to stuff their faces and retain calories. That’s just the way it is.
Smoking, on the other hand, though an addiction, is a lifestyle choice that people make. True, some people are more predisposed to having addictive behaviors than others. However, smoking affects other people much more than having that 4th twinkie does. If smoking is something someone is committed to, they’ll be willing to pay the extra money for it. People who are overweight already pay more money to sustain their unhealthy food habit.
I’m not saying that one is worse than the other, but I’m just saying that taxing unhealthy lifestyle choices might not be such a bad idea.
Speaking as a fat person who has struggled my entire life to lose weight (and even when eating measured food, walking everywhere and biking 10-20 miles a day did not lose any weight – which was bizarre and frustrating), you cannot look at every fat individual and say, “Well, there’s someone who has CHOSEN an unhealthy lifestyle and should be punished for it with higher taxes.” What you would end up with is, and I say this seriously, a lot of suicides from people like me who have been trying like hell to be the weight society tells me I need to be and couldn’t afford to pay the taxes.
Eating – not overeating – is a necessity of survival. Smoking is not. I don’t give a damn if people want to smoke, though (as long as it’s not in the same space I am, simply because I have a lifelong allergy.) That’s a personal choice.
oh man, I kind of thought that if I got any commenters on this post, I would get at least one “that’s a horrible idea,” but I didn’t expect any “that’s a good ideas.” i have been proven wrong, apparently.
for the record, i was being … facetious, if you didn’t get that. of course I don’t think we should tax people for being overweight, I just also don’t think it’s fair to vice tax just for the hell of it. and I also realize (and have actually railed against, in previous posts) the idea that overweight necessarily always equals unfit or unhealthy is wrong. i imagine there are plenty of people with 20 pounds on me who are much, much healthier. which is why (the idea of taxing lifestyle choices aside) a tax on weight would be ridiculous.
and as for the “smoking affects other people a lot more than being overweight” business — that argument perhaps holds some weights in smoking ban arguments, but absolutely nothing to do with cigarette taxes.
Cigarette smokers cost this country billions of dollars each year in health care expenses. By those numbers, and since cigarettes aren’t an indispensible product, we should ban cigarettes as a public health hazard.
Right?
No? Don’t like that idea very much?
Then shut up about paying an extra 75 cents for your cancer sticks so some kids can have health care.
Heart disease costs this country billions of dollars each year in health care expenses. By those numbers, and since most varieties of foods aren’t indispensible products, we should ban everything but whole grains, fish and vegetables as public health hazards.
Right?
No? Don’t like that idea very much?
Then stop complaining about how much cigarette smokers rack up in health care costs until all non-smokers everywhere never engage in any behaviors that are remotely unhealthy.
I think this is RIGHT ON. If you’re going to be SELECTIVELY judgemental (threegreenmiles) then you are missing the point. Get rid of alcohol. Ban fast food. And handguns. And rifles. And greenhouse gasses and cars that can go over 45 mph. Get rid of pornography. And anything else that can possibly hurt you, or hurt anyone, somewhere, somehow.
Get rid of it ALL.
OR, you can get that personal liberties mean that you have the right to “sin”, and you shouldn’t be selectively punished for it based on what’s in fashion this month. I hate Sin Taxes, bc it’s so full of hypocrisy. And you know what i hate MORE? The government making that call based on what THEY think is “bad”.
OK, time for elyzabethe and inowpronounceyou to have a team meeting.
elyzabethe argues the government should ban everything, therefore should not tax cigarettes.
inowpronounceyou argues the government should ban nothing, therefore should not tax cigarettes.
You can’t have it both ways. Huddle up on that one, come up with a cohesive argument, or at least an equally ridiculous argument that doesn’t cancel itself out like matter and antimatter, and get back to me.
thegreenmiles — if my sarcastic rewording of your comment somehow gave you the impression that I was not in agreement with inowpronounceyou, i apologize. for clarity: against banning things. against rasing cigarette taxes. and now done arguing with you about this; your condescension is starting to annoy me.
The thing is, the equivalent of a tobacco tax would not be to tax someone based on their weight. The equivalent would be to tax junk food — food that provides less than a set minimum amount of nutrition while containing more than a set maximum amount of calories/fat. This doesn’t tax the person for their weight; it taxes a product that does more harm than good (health care costs versus providing employment, tax base, etc.) And it taxes people who are choosing to buy something that will, you know, kill them, in order to offset the cost of, say, healthcare for uninsured children, who made no choice to be uninsured.
Um, “banning” and “taxing” are different things.
Also, taxing cigarettes is not the same as taxing the overweight. A better analogy would be taxing foods that are used in becoming overweight. In fact, at least in Maryland, this is already true. Groceries are not taxed, but snack foods and sodas are.
Taxing the overweight is more like taxing sufferers of lung cancer: maybe they got that way because of behaviour and maybe it was genetic.
I think if we taxed overweight people, we should tax underweight people, too. Those anorexics aren’t healthy either.
On the other hand, if someone takes up two seats, they should pay for two seats.
Exactly. The equivalent of a tobacco tax is not a tax on overweight people. The equivalent would be a tax on junk food — and yeah, this is already being done in some places. Plus, it has the added benefit of taxing people who choose to purchase items that, you know, will kill them. And the money can be used for things like paying for the healthcare of uninsured children, who didn’t choose to be uninsured.
I posted something similar like an hour ago, so either it disappeared into the intertubes or something is amiss.
As a general heuristic, when arguing against a tax the answer is never “more taxes” or “tax something else.”
elyzabethe, you are a genius, I bow to the perfect logic of your proposal. half of our national health care cost comes from people being too fat. look at Japan, they know how expensive an obesity epidemic can be to a country, so they are urgently changing policy as Japanese are starting to eat more crap. why should normal people have to pay for the extra costs of health care for fat people?
This is sick, twisted, and fabulous. I love it.
[…] taxing the overweight I think we should start taxing people based on their weight. Weight tax, if you will. Healthy weight? Then you don’t h […] […]
Reason Magazine has had several articles in recent weeks pertaining to such topics.
The socialized costs of healthcare may be the problem as well. It’s like in Full Metal Jacket when the platoon does push-ups while Pvt. Pile ate a donut.
Mmmm…[couch couch]…dooonnnuuuuutttsss.
[cough cough]
speling are taribale, saray.
fat tax? maybe.
government-funded work camps for fatties? absolutely. beautify america in more ways than one — lose weight and increase the gdp!
I have trouble believing some of you people posting here are actually serious!? This government is tyrannical and out of control as it is already and so are the brainwashed morons that they govern, but a “fat tax” is sheer lunacy.
This is the same government that’s approved saccharin, Prozac and Vioxx, whil at the same time trying to restrict and outlaw whole foods and health supplements… and some of you people think this same government should be in charge of insuring your health?!
some of you people are racist against overweight folks. that’s right, racist, if someone doesn’t look like you or how you perceive they should, you attack them. maybe you should start a group similar to the kkk or the black panthers. be sure to include skinny people when you start your crusade because they are unhealthy also.
i have been fighting my weight all my life, i have dealt with people like you all my life. from childhood to adulthood i have verbally and physically fought stupid and vindictive so called people like you. i have been taught about acceptance and taught my kids to accept others for what they are. i think we need a camp for people just like some of you. it can be called Stamp Out Stupidity or S.O.S. it should be run by all overweight people.
we should all write our congressmen to start a bill to tax all stupid people. we can call it the idiot tax. the money can go to educate our children so they won’t turn out to be the same vindictive, hateful folks some of you are.
Excuse me, everyone… Why don’t we just stand up and say ENOUGH TAX on everything. Why doesn’t the government go after those scamming the system, from healthcare, to food stamps etc. etc. Otherwise people we will start being charged a fee for breathing.
People have and should have the FREEDOM to smoke, drink, eat etc. The overweight population, such as myself have enough problems. Not all overweight people are that by choice. There are medical issues, medicines, and other then that, yes the junk that is put into our foods contribute. The crap the inner city people buy because the money is not there to buy “the healthy foods”. This issue is bigger.
We need to unite on these issues United we stand, divided we will surely fall.
Isn’t this all discrimination of one kind or another?
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