Should Soda Be Taxed Essay

Most of us have had the chance to taste a nice cold, sweet, bubbly sensation in our mouths from soda. There is no denying it’s taste is addictive and refreshing, but at what cost? There is a lot of controversy around the subject of soda and it’s effects, and if it should be taxed or not. This essay will explore if a tax on soft drinks is warranted. It would need to be efficient, fair and effective. This report will look at how these criteria can be met, and how taxing soft drinks have an effect on the populations health. The fact is many of us struggle to inde-pendently improve our soda habits, thus suggesting that government intervention may be helpful to improve the health of the population, and reduce medical costs. Government in-tervention in a market is warranted when market failures cause suboptimal intake. Market failures are present in the soda industry due to …show more content…
This has been in the form of replacing the majority of the sugar with a more natural sugar substitute called stevia. Stevia is an extract from the plant Stevia rebaudiana, which can be found in North America. Although it has been approved by the FDA, it cannot be ignored that there are still other ingredients in soda that have not been altered and still cause risk. Even though it has again been marketed as ‘healthy’, it comes with a new set of concerns. In some cultures around the world, stevia extract is used to “pre-vent pregnancy” and some researchers have expressed concern that stevia might have an antifertility effect in men or women. There have been reports that Stevia caused prepubes-cent rats to have a substantial reduction in testosterone production over a period of 60 days (ncbi). Thus proving that a 20% tax would still be the best course of action, even with a healthier substitute