Stop worrying about who will win the Senate tomorrow, there is a cause we can unite against.
There is a proposal in Berkeley California to tax soda (actually sweetened drinks) 1 penny per ounce and in San Francisco 2 pennies per ounce all in the name of promoting health.
Considering the founders of this site are not obese and drink a lot of Dr. Pepper (myself) and Coke & Dr. Pepper (Robert) we are really opposed to this tax.
I don't want the government telling what to eat especially with a product where the link to health problems is very remote. Is the government going to soon tax how many calories I eat or put a tax on desserts? Why don't we tax ice cream as well?
Let's tax fat people who don't run while we're at it.
1 penny per ounce may not sound like much but it is a totally disproportionate to other taxes.
Occasionally I can buy a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper for $2.50. At 2 cents an ounce, the tax would nearly double the price adding $2.44 (12 x 12 ounces X .02) to the price. At one cent an ounce the price would go up nearly 25%.
This site shows the tax on beer per ounce:
http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/beer-tax-in-your-state/
Tennessee has the highest tax at 66 cents for a 6 pack of beer. California taxes beer 11 cents per 6 pack. This soda tax would tax a 6 pack of Coke at 72 cents with the 1 cent tax and $1.44 with the 2 cent tax. Is California really trying to claim soda is the most harmful thing we can eat? Why single out soda? I love my beer, but you're not going to get a DUI drinking soda and kill someone yet it is going to be taxed 6 or 12 times as much as beer in the Berkeley and San Fran respectively if the measures pass.
Where will it stop? I love fast food, you might love lasagna or steak. What about brownies or desserts?
The disproportionate amount of this tax and only sweetened beverages being singled out I believe shows how this really is about a few people deciding what is best for the rest of us.
The tax is for sweetened beverages so that includes not just Coke and Dr. Pepper, but Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Arizona Ice Tea, etc.
I just checked out this website
http://www.berkeleyvsbigsoda.com/faq
and the proponents of the tax seem most concerned about protecting kids from diabetes.
There are better ways to do that.