Tax on Soda and Sugary Drinks Essay Example

Introduction

Good afternoon everyone. I will take this opportunity to thank every one of you for finding time to attend our forum. Today I will talk about taxation on soda and sugary drinks. We all love sweet things, ice-creams, cakes, and soft drinks and I think there should be no limitation on the number of delicious things that we consume, and it doesn't matter whether they have a negative impact on our health, and furthermore, do we even care. Let's take as much ice-cream as we can afford. Let's allow our children to eat cakes and sweets as they would wish. That is the mindset of a person who lacks knowledge of the health perils associated with refined sugars and the damage they can cause to our lives. Sugary products are good, but people should limit the quantity they take on a daily basis to avoid the lifestyle-related health conditions (Appleton & Jacobs, 2015). This paper shall provide a speech on the factors that have to be put in place to have taxation on soda and sugary drinks so that society can adopt a healthy way of feeding.

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The Economic and Health Benefits of Taxing Soda and Sugary Drinks

The main advantage of taxing the production of soda and sugary drinks is to lower its mass production and at the same time making these products to be sold at a higher price due to the high cost of production due to the imposed tax. This will ensure that these products are not affordable to everyone and especially the children who might not have a limit to their intake (Trujillo & Lascher, 2015). The society should also be aware of the health risks and the dangers they subject themselves when they take products with refined sugars. This is because sugar is the leading cause of heart diseases, obesity, and diabetes. All these health conditions are detrimental and cost a lot to put them under control. To ensure that the number of people suffering from these conditions becomes low, the government should impose heavy taxes on these products. The revenue collected can be used to educate people as well as providing affordable healthcare facilities to people already suffering from diseases related to the consumption of soda and sugary drinks.

Reasons why it is Necessary to Support a Tax on Soda

As most of you know, our country needs a lot of resources to bring the much-needed reforms in the healthcare sector. Instead of the government having us to dig deep into our pockets through our pockets to raise money, it would be a wise idea to impose a tax on soda production instead. The following reasons will show why this would be the best way to go.

The sin reason: a majority of you might not be aware that sugary beverages can account for up to 15 percent of the calories that the children consume on daily bases this is regarding a study that was conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine. The study indicated that the most significant cause of the obesity epidemic in children is sugar-sweetened beverages. You all want your children to lead a normal, healthy life, don't you? If you do, then you have to support the taxation of the sugar-sweetened beverages.

The other reason is due to the market reason: the reason why the junk food and sugary drinks have dominated the market is that they are very cheap, produced in large quantity thus flooding the market. This has made healthy beverages and foods to be highly priced. If taxes are imposed on these beverages and junk food, they will reduce in the market creating more room for healthy food to be consumed by the people. Junk food is known to be a significant cause of cholesterol in the body which leads to high blood pressure.

Finally the last reason the deficit reason: the deficit reason will be useful in the following manner. An increase in tax of the sugary beverages will lower the production and thus increasing the revenue that the government receives from the sale of this product. But if the tax is not imposed more people will develop poor feeding habits and develop lifestyle-health complications (Voigt & Williams, 2014). The government will use a lot of resources to cater for their medication which supersedes the revenue they receive from the production and sale of the beverages. As a result, the government is presented with a loss which is a significant gain for them in disguise.

Conclusion

Having said all that, it is now upon the decision of an individual to determine the kind of lifestyle they would want to lead having in mind the dangers that are associated with some feeding habits. The greatest beneficiary of tax being imposed on soda and sugary beverages is the citizens leave alone the government. One needs to be healthy to be productive and provide their family with a better living. Nonetheless, they should not destroy their lives in the pretext of developing some feeding behaviors which can be costly when they develop health conditions. Parents must ensure that their children feed healthy stuff that will support their growth and development, and this can be achieved if they are observant with what they feed their children.

References

Appleton, N., & Jacobs, G. N. (2015). Stopping inflammation: Relieving the cause of degenerative diseases. Garden City Park, NY: Square One.

Trujillo, A., Jez, S. J., & Lascher, E. L. (2015). An excise tax on sugar-sweetened drinks as health policy: Can taxation influence weight?

Voigt, K., Nicholls, S. G., & Williams, G. (2014). Childhood obesity: Ethical and policy issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press.