Junk Food Tax
By: Ashley Hurtz, Jennifer Johnson, and Austin Moenck
Yes, we should tax junk food.
As a society we have become dependent on fast-food restaurants and junk food, which has lead to the increase in health problems. Some studies have shown that junk food can lead to diabetes and heart diseases. By putting a tax on junk food some people might stop buying it and if they don't their tax money will be put to good use by being put towards helping cut health-care costs for obesity and diabetes patients. 20% of obesity cases have been caused by drinking sugary beverages all the time. A way to decrease this is to have stricter laws on junk food, since it was found that areas with stricter laws have actually lowered their obesity percentage from the first measurement in 5th grade to the second measurement in 8th grade. A way to promote healthy foods is to put a tax on junk foods.
NO, we should not tax junk food.
We should not tax junk food because it will not stop the overall problem the United States has with obesity. States are putting the tax on any drink that contains any amount of sugar in it. This includes many juice drinks that are healthy but they contain the sugar to help sweeten them. For those who want that can or bottle of sugar, will still go out and buy it to meet their craving needs. The businesses who sell the drinks that are having a business tax put on them and then once they got the product they can put the extra tax on the drinks for sales tax purposes. Many feel that this is too much and will have little effect on the country's obesity problem.
What we think of the tax on junk food.
We feel that since junk food is unhealthy for you that it should be taxed to promote awareness of how much it has caused our obesity rates to go up over time. The government should make an effort to keep Americans healthy by lowering healthy food costs and increase junk food costs. If we did this it would make it easier for Americans to buy healthy foods and with would also encourage people to not eat junk foods because it costs more than the healthy foods.