Do you support a fast food tax (or McTax) to subsidize health care insurance for the poor?
Put like a 30% tax on fast food like there is on smokes and use this money to subsidize health care for the poor who will also be incented to make healther food choices.
Law & Ethics - 8 Answers
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1 :
sure.
2 :
Yes. The courts have upheld that the tobacco industry is responsible for the health of its customers. The same should be true for the fast food and alcohol industries when it comes to obesity and alcoholism. Personally, I believe people should be held accountable for their own decisions, but the courts have spoken.
3 :
just raise the 99 cents burgers to $19.99 each, then people will think twice about buying fastfood. it'll deter more people from getting fat and having weight related health problems. then again, why do people, who work hard and already have health insurance & want fastfood still have to pay the mctax for other people? I think all employers should offer a subsidized health care program for their employees in which they pay a monthly fee.
4 :
Why punish people who eat fast food to supply the poor with healthcare? Why are they poor? What are the people who can afford fast food doing right? It's a cold world, it's hard sometimes to make it, I've had some pretty rough times myself, but I don't expect anyone else to get me out of my messes. It's time to take responsibility for your life and do all that you can to support you and your family. Health is a very important thing, you should be willing to spend a good portion of your income on that instead of needless material items. This of course is not saying all poor do this, but having a plan and working towards it will help.
5 :
no that sounds like a dumb liberal tax plan next you'll want to tax breathing and drinking water
6 :
Actually, there *are problems* with this one. Fast food is too narrow and too specific--for most poor people it's an occasional indulgence at best, and we can't afford much better *already*. So basically, like a lot of poor taxes it punishes people for being poor as much as anything (telling them, "no, you can't go out to eat at all, we'll tax the hell out of the places you were able to afford...."). Still, I'd like the idea if it were expanded a little to include some of the unhealthy choices people make *all over*. --Put a tax, say of 15%, on all food products made with *high fructose corn syrup*. This way you snag both fast food *and* the junk foods (like carbonated soda/pop beverages) at the grocery store that people of *non-poor* economic backgrounds might end up buying. Not to mention...people will get rid of the stuff to avoid the tax, which will both a) make foods healthier, and b) give farmers extra *corn syrup* to work with....to make *fuel* out of (ethanol) versus food. Sounds like a win-win to me! --Put another tax on *added fats* in general. Taxing trans fats isn't going to be enough--manufacturers will just avoid the taxed fat, rather like they did with cholesterol and saturated fats in the 1970s and 1980s. So tax *all fats* that are added above and beyond the fat content of individual ingredients. Again, I'd say the rate should be about 15%. And yes, this would make *peanut butter* harder to make, but hey.... --Finally....levy a special tax on *anything* that is a Breaded/Deep-Fried good. Say, a tax of 20%. Yes, this one's going to hurt....folks love their fried chicken across *all* economic classes, but.... This is the big one right here. Just ask anyone about "Mississippi obesity risk" and "deep-fried foods" and see the response you get. And yes, those phrases are in quotes so you can search by copy and paste, no typing needed (hell, it was in Yahoo! News recently, if you want to know where to look). But yeah, this way, you end up getting a fairer tax structure. You end up levying taxes on foods that are unhealthy for *everyone* and that are also *bought by* everyone, not *just* poor folks who can't *afford* too many more taxes. And by taxing *ingredients* and not *products*, you don't get *quite* so much hell raised by specific businesses...a High Fructose Corn Syrup Tax just sounds easier to swallow than a *Pepsi Tax*, even if the Corn Syrup tax ends up hitting soft drinks the hardest. ^_^ But hey, what do I know? -_- I'm just one of those "poor people" you politicians want to *punish*..... Thanks for your time though.
7 :
no
8 :
got news for you...it just isn't the poor who do not have health care. there are a lot of hard working people who do not have it because the company they work for does not provide it.... or those who do have it...have high deductibles and premiums with 80/20 payment....then their are the people who have to retire and when they do, they lose their benefits and are not old enough for medicare.....if they do have medicare but do not have enough money to pay for Part B and Part B medicare.....need I go on? don't just blame it on the fast food industry. A lot of people do not receive the proper care early on because they just cannot afford it....with or without insurance
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