re: UK sugar tax worked to cut sugar consumption by 50%; wants to implement more taxes

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"The government CAINT take my freedom away with no sugar tax," he shouted, as his health insurance premiums tripled to cover the increased heart surgeries and foot amputations for his fellow Americans

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Yeah, it turns out when people are free, they often make bad choices.

But there are ways to deal with that that don't involve forfeiting freedom.

For example, we could stop forcing health "insurance" companies to accept everyone regardless of health status. Since what we're doing right now is the equivalent of forcing an auto insurance company to accept a client who has already wrecked their car.

In fact, we could do away with 3rd party pay altogether for routine medical care and use actual health insurance—that is, pay premiums to cover expenses for things that are actually not likely to happen to any given person instead of paying premiums to cover guaranteed expenses, which is what we do now.

Either or both of those uncouples you from someone else's poor choices.

But I get it. Those are conservative solutions and all the populists these days (whether on the left or on the right) sneer at those solutions and the conservatives who offer them.

So I guess we'll have to expand government at the expense of freedom.

While we're at it, I think we should have the government mandate exercise. We should raise taxes to pay for government gyms and we should all be required as citizens to clock in a certain number of minutes of exercise at one of them each week.

And of course we should be banning candy, soda, and just about all processed food. In fact, we know that increased consumption of animal products leads to colon cancer and heart disease, so the government needs to start putting everyone on a meat and dairy ration. Only so much per week per person...just enough to keep vitamin B levels up.

Look, if we're going to do this, there's no point in fricking around with it. We need government to force people to be healthy so your health "insurance" premiums will go down...it's the only way!

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I don't think you can base it solely on the weight of a person. Sure, typically plays a huge part but we do need to explore claims versus just simply the weight of someone.

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I think they are referring to the documented correlation between weight and mortality rate.

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Do you think kids should have tobacco and alcohol? We need regulation. The current model isn’t working.

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So now we need the government to tell us what to eat and when?

You sheep amaze me.

Where do we draw the line?


Are they going to tell you when to take a shite, too?

"How about tax breaks? How about tax breaks?"

That should be the question at the press confrence.

The amount of sugar we put in bread is criminal

Obtuse talked about that earlier in this thread. Sugar is in damn near everything in the US

For example Bread from subway can’t legally be called bread in the UK, they call it cake due to the sugar content. I bet your average American doear even realize it has sugar

Not sure the specifics of what they do or do not put in but Germans eat ice cream and drink beer like it's a religion and don't look like your average American.

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What in the US do they not put in EU food ?

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Tons of stuff.

Most recently for me, buying baby formula opened my eyes. The FDA allows corn syrup solids to be the source of glucose in formula. The EU and UK doesn't. They're also more strict on additives and nutrient levels than the FDA. We swapped to a formula that was EU approved.

Study linking corn sugars in formula to higher risk of childhood obesity. Fatten em up young!

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Then choose the right bread. There are plenty in the US that don't have any

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If everyone made healthy decisions then we wouldn't be having this discussion in the first place

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US should do this. Or give incentives for healthy eating.

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I prefer a fast food tax. Ten dollar tax on every meal and health in America would improve in less than 5 years.

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As I am health conscious.

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If that was true you'd make your own. My family has hardly bought bread in over 30 years, bread machines have made it incredibly easy. A good one like a Zojirushi model will make better bread cheaper than anything store-bought. I use one just to mix and proof the dough the bake round loaves in the oven. I use a basic burger bun recipe from King Arthur flour to make onion rolls for dressing too.