Junk Food Tax Research Paper

In consideration of a junk food tax, investigation of potential impact on the individual is of particular significance. It is imperative not only in aiding assessment without oversight of the direct nature of the impact such policy would ultimately have on Australians, but also in recognition that the overall outcome is composed of the sum of individual effect. Support for the tax is driven by the goal to lower the extent of many individuals’ consumption of foods not conducive to achieving and maintaining body mass indices (BMI) in the healthy range. As those with BMIs beyond the healthy range are known to be at major risk for health conditions such as diabetes, sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, and degenerative musculoskeletal disorders …show more content…
Altering the cost of food, an absolute necessity, can be seen as enforcing great limitation on individuals’ choices. This composes an important downfall to the junk food tax in concern for the individual, for whom it is viewed that choice is essential to autonomy, and is hence fundamental to wellbeing (Markus & Schwartz 2010). Smith (2006) defines junk food as those commercial products that have little or no nutritional value but do contain plenty of kilojoules, salt, and fats. The quantity of foods falling under this umbrella term is immense, rendering limitation of personal choice a particularly pervasive and hence significant possible outcome. Researchers have examined existing evidence for food taxes, to find that an increase of as much as 20% in the price of unhealthy food and drink would be required to cut consumption enough that obesity levels would be reduced (Campbell 2012). When factoring the immensity of the category of food and drink in question along the degree to which the prices of these products would need to be manipulated to see many individuals reducing consumption, a junk food tax seems an overly paternalistic approach to the complex issue of health. Positive images of potential for junk food tax success are at times drawn from the successes of tobacco taxes, which have raised similar concerns for infringement upon …show more content…
In 2014, The Australian Council of Social Service determined that 2.55 million people were living below the poverty line, representing 13.9% of the population. Leicester & Windmeijer (2004) estimated that the rich would spend less than 0.1% of their income on a fat tax in the United Kingdom, compared to a sizably larger 0.7% for the poor. Provided that such evidence suggests that trends of consumption in lower income households lean disproportionately further towards poorer quality foods on average, it must be recognized that a junk food tax would be likely to deeply and notably affect disadvantaged Australians. Consequently, this advances the likelihood that this tax would be a punitive measure of regressive effect in society. The validity of this concern rests in that use of taxation in isolation is not by any reasonable means adequate in achieving the desired response of improved public health. It is necessary for consumers to possess both the resources and knowledge required to purchase and prepare healthy alternatives to the taxed foods. Without these elements, low-income groups will be in the unfortunate position of spending more of limited funds for the same unhealthy foods that were sought pre-tax. Furthermore, this could extend to a latent effect of low-income consumers reducing purchase of healthy foods to accommodate for the