The United States of America is known around the world for a lot of incredible things. It has one of the best economies on the planet, boasting the highest Gross Domestic Product of any country. However, The U.S. is also known for having the highest obesity rate in the world of any industrialized country. Cytherian L. Odgen who works for the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that “In 2011-2012, the prevalence of obesity in the United States was 16.9% in youth and 34.9% in adults”. That means one in three adults, and a little more than one in six children, are struggling with obesity. Now, compare that to France which has one of the lowest obesity rates of any country, roughly one in eight
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This isn’t impractical either, France already has a tax on sugary drinks. Known as the “fat tax”, it imposes 6 Euro Cents per liter of the sugary drink. A tax like this discourages adults from purchasing drinks high in sugar because they will be more expensive, and doing so promotes a healthier lifestyle. The idea behind the tax is that American’s will reach for a healthier alternative rather than spend the extra money on the unhealthy product. This does not have to be a permanent fix, but this could be “Limitations in producing or selling some products are quite extreme solutions but they could be applied together with a tax until the population is educated enough not to demand products which are bad for its own health” (Paganelli). The main idea behind taxing fat and sugary foods and drinks is not to stop people completely from consuming them, but to make them aware of what they are putting in their bodies. The revenue generated from such a tax would be more than sufficient to fund school’s health programs, and excess money to be reallocated to improving school …show more content…
But imposing tax directly on the producer, wouldn’t affect the consumer. I interview with William Isola, student at Loyola University in Maryland, he told me that, the food and drink industry has very loose regulations and can do almost anything they want. Imposing a tax on them in America could cause a worldwide revolution. If America could successfully impose a tax on one of the largest industries, smaller countries could do the same. This localized America problem to advance the Health education of Middle Schoolers, could spark a global fight to end obesity. The producers would do everything in their power to make sure such a tax never sees the light of day, so America has to stand strong to enforce it. This tax would be very unpopular and could make many companies upset, but if enforced it will open the eyes of a lot of people. The America Citizen would see why it is important to tax companies that created unhealthy products, and how those unhealthy products are doing harm to their
This isn’t impractical either, France already has a tax on sugary drinks. Known as the “fat tax”, it imposes 6 Euro Cents per liter of the sugary drink. A tax like this discourages adults from purchasing drinks high in sugar because they will be more expensive, and doing so promotes a healthier lifestyle. The idea behind the tax is that American’s will reach for a healthier alternative rather than spend the extra money on the unhealthy product. This does not have to be a permanent fix, but this could be “Limitations in producing or selling some products are quite extreme solutions but they could be applied together with a tax until the population is educated enough not to demand products which are bad for its own health” (Paganelli). The main idea behind taxing fat and sugary foods and drinks is not to stop people completely from consuming them, but to make them aware of what they are putting in their bodies. The revenue generated from such a tax would be more than sufficient to fund school’s health programs, and excess money to be reallocated to improving school …show more content…
But imposing tax directly on the producer, wouldn’t affect the consumer. I interview with William Isola, student at Loyola University in Maryland, he told me that, the food and drink industry has very loose regulations and can do almost anything they want. Imposing a tax on them in America could cause a worldwide revolution. If America could successfully impose a tax on one of the largest industries, smaller countries could do the same. This localized America problem to advance the Health education of Middle Schoolers, could spark a global fight to end obesity. The producers would do everything in their power to make sure such a tax never sees the light of day, so America has to stand strong to enforce it. This tax would be very unpopular and could make many companies upset, but if enforced it will open the eyes of a lot of people. The America Citizen would see why it is important to tax companies that created unhealthy products, and how those unhealthy products are doing harm to their