Some Philly residents up in arms about 1.5 cent-per-ounce soda tax. Anyone live there?

wejo wrote:

Is diet soda taxed? (Studies came out showing diet soda may be pretty bad for you in terms of keeping off weight)

Yes, diet soda is taxed. Those studies are full of sh!t. I drink at least 10 two liters of diet soda a week and weigh 130 lbs. I've been drinking diet pop since Tab was popular. (35+ years)

I drink diet pop because I don't care for just water. If I relied on only water, I would be dehydrated most of the time which everybody agrees can have very bad consequences. I'll take my chances on all of the "bad" things in diet pop.

Dehydration can lead to serious complications, including:

•Heat injury. If you don't drink enough fluids when you're exercising vigorously and perspiring heavily, you may end up with a heat injury, ranging in severity from mild heat cramps to heat exhaustion or potentially life-threatening heatstroke.

•Urinary and kidney problems. Prolonged or repeated bouts of dehydration can cause urinary tract infections, kidney stones and even kidney failure.

•Seizures. Electrolytes — such as potassium and sodium — help carry electrical signals from cell to cell. If your electrolytes are out of balance, the normal electrical messages can become mixed up, which can lead to involuntary muscle contractions and sometimes to a loss of consciousness.

•Low blood volume shock (hypovolemic shock). This is one of the most serious, and sometimes life-threatening, complications of dehydration. It occurs when low blood volume causes a drop in blood pressure and a drop in the amount of oxygen in your body.

yoooooooo wrote:

"Those eating a lot of animal protein [...] had 73 times the risk of dying from diabetes.

Now, those that chose moderation (only eating a moderate amount of animal protein)—they just had 23 times the risk of death from diabetes."

Type 2 diabetes is caused by being overweight. The most common way to eat a lot of animal protein is to eat too much overall.

Quit trying to scare people who exercise and aren't fat.

I loves my grape sody and fried chicken. There taking the soul outta soul food. Racists.

I live outside the city. First, killadelphia is an absolute disaster. The city is beyond broke; they raised property taxes a few years ago, which (Besides hurting the profitability of my northern liberties rental) seemed not to do anything major. They have terrible policies deterring real estate investors to participate in section 8(which they desperately need more of).

As far as this sugar tax goes it doesn't impact me at all but maybe it will financially motivate some of the very poor to watch what they put in their bodies. My job puts me in contact with these people on a regular basis and a good number are overweight with diabetes.

But no matter what the city will still be a broke disaster...

Check out how the soda tax works with SNAP in Chicago...

"But some 920,000 Cook County residents who receive food stamp benefits wouldn't pay any more than they do now, calling into question how effective the tax will be at reducing consumption in some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods with high rates of obesity and diabetes. Under federal law, purchases made with benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are exempt from state and local taxes."

(Source: Chicago Tribune)

CrookCounty11 wrote:

Check out how the soda tax works with SNAP in Chicago...

"But some 920,000 Cook County residents who receive food stamp benefits wouldn't pay any more than they do now, calling into question how effective the tax will be at reducing consumption in some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods with high rates of obesity and diabetes. Under federal law, purchases made with benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, are exempt from state and local taxes."

(Source: Chicago Tribune)

Wow! I never thought of that! Then its a complete waste of a tax. Philly genius strikes again!!!!

I've that song before, the lotto money in Illinois was suppose to go to the school but didn't. WHY Don't they have a tax on alcohol?

So I live in Philly and I like to enjoy a nice cold coca-cola on occasion (And I will still beat you in a mile) and I have seen receipts where the tax on a 6 pack of propel was more expensive than the original price. Don't make the mistake that it is just regular soda that is subject to the tax, its chocolate milk, gatorade, other sports drinks, and even odwalla fruit drinks. This is just another the method the city of Philadelphia is using to keep their constituents dependent on the government. Don't believe me? Who do you think is disproportionally impacted by the tax? Poor African Americans that work minimum wage jobs or are on some government subsidized food plan. Perhaps the city of Philadelphia shouldn't have multiple public officials being convicted of corruption (misuse of campaign/govt fuds for personal use, i.e. Chakkah Fatah sentenced to 10 years in prison) and they may be able to afford spending on schools and child care. Why don't they just legalize recreational marijuana, regulate and tax it similar to alcohol, and they will probably bring in more tax revenue, increase business opportunities and jobs, reduce crime in North Philly. But hey, I never expect liberals to see reason.

How does Mike Rossi feel about it?

I live in Philly but I honestly don't give a crap about soda because as a runner, I don't drink that stuff. But I have heard of a lot of people who are pretty pissed off about it. I honestly think it's for the best and that these butthurt people need to just get over themselves and be healthier. Soda for the most part is gross anyways.

Drinking soda places a much bigger burden on the consumer and working class than a 1.5% tax.[/quote]

Bingo

PrZ wrote:

I live in Philly but I honestly don't give a crap about soda because as a runner, I don't drink that stuff. But I have heard of a lot of people who are pretty pissed off about it. I honestly think it's for the best and that these butthurt people need to just get over themselves and be healthier. Soda for the most part is gross anyways.

Do you realize using the term "butthurt" immediately tells me you are probably under the age of 20 with a very low IQ? While your tiny little undeveloped mind thinks soda is gross, there are hundreds of millions of people who think otherwise. Per capita consumption of soda in the United States is 5,100 oz.

If that average is the same in Philly, every person would pay 75 dollars in soda tax per year.

Don't be obvious.... wrote:

PrZ wrote:

I live in Philly but I honestly don't give a crap about soda because as a runner, I don't drink that stuff. But I have heard of a lot of people who are pretty pissed off about it. I honestly think it's for the best and that these butthurt people need to just get over themselves and be healthier. Soda for the most part is gross anyways.

Do you realize using the term "butthurt" immediately tells me you are probably under the age of 20 with a very low IQ? While your tiny little undeveloped mind thinks soda is gross, there are hundreds of millions of people who think otherwise. Per capita consumption of soda in the United States is 5,100 oz.

If that average is the same in Philly, every person would pay 75 dollars in soda tax per year.

Fat people and poor people will pay way more than $75 while the rest of us will pay way less. So...why should we care?

Why not tax alcohol the same as sugar drinks? Not just beer but tax rich people so hit wine and the hard stuff too.

Cool Aid, Gatoraide, Lemonaide, juices... All have sugar. Are they taxed? Is this in Resturants too?

Could you imagine that 24 pack of bud costing an extra $5. You hillbillies would be flipping out.

just the fats and poors wrote:

Don't be obvious.... wrote:

Do you realize using the term "butthurt" immediately tells me you are probably under the age of 20 with a very low IQ? While your tiny little undeveloped mind thinks soda is gross, there are hundreds of millions of people who think otherwise. Per capita consumption of soda in the United States is 5,100 oz.

If that average is the same in Philly, every person would pay 75 dollars in soda tax per year.

Fat people and poor people will pay way more than $75 while the rest of us will pay way less. So...why should we care?

Not true, healthy people will end up paying for the health care costs of obesity and diabetes for these welfare losers who get free healthcare along with everything else and have never paid an income tax in their pathetic lives. But you can bet they've all got cable TV and money for booze and drugs.

I live about 90 min outside of Philly, but I do get Philly political TV ads.

I remember seeing this debate during the primary cycle, and one of the anti-tax arguments were how the taxes would drive away customers from the small markets, where these places typically rely on the people stopping by for a snack/drink. The customer would just drive to the next town over to avoid the tax, hurting the small business owners due to drop off in attendance/purchases.

ladedah wrote:

I live about 90 min outside of Philly, but I do get Philly political TV ads.

I remember seeing this debate during the primary cycle, and one of the anti-tax arguments were how the taxes would drive away customers from the small markets, where these places typically rely on the people stopping by for a snack/drink. The customer would just drive to the next town over to avoid the tax, hurting the small business owners due to drop off in attendance/purchases.

No way, that would put off immediate gratification. And mst of us folks don't have cars, that's why we hang at the bodegas.

I'm a long time philly resident who supported this tax because I hate fat people, and the burden they put on the healthcare system. However, once they added zero calorie diet soda onto the list of taxed "sugary" drinks, it became clear this was nothing more than a money grab by a socialist mayor targeting a specific business, and it's disturbing. Let's put this in perspective, you can now go to an ice cream parlor and buy a milkshake (milk and ice cream so it's not taxed) and pay the same price as a zero calorie 32 oz. Diet Coke.