Pros and Cons of Fast-food taxing.?

Question

I have heard that fast food restaurants such as McDonald, Burger King, and Jack in the Box are taxing their products. I have found out that the taxing is imposed by the government, not the corporation.
What are the pros and cons to this issue? I am writing a paper that takes on an approach of 'con fast-food taxing'.

Answer 1

CON: It limits consumer freedom... people know by now that smoking cigarettes, driving without a seatbelt, and eating a bacon double cheeseburger can be hazardous to one's health... but they do it anyway. There are healthier options, but we choose not to take them.

PROS: Tax revenue could (potentially) help pay for the healthcare of obese individuals on public assistance (including Medicare)... of course, obesity tends to kill people off early so they don't take much social security!

I haven't heard of these fastfood-specific taxes.

Answer 2

I do not believe in food being taxed, but It might help improve our health. Fast foods accuse an unusual amount of litter. Mostly people buy the food and toss the wrapper in the street. Some cities has special tax to help with this problem. THe other problem is the food is too cheap. I usually don't like to say this because the poor needs to eat, but it was found that a large part of the fast food s income comes from kids buying the food on their way home from school. THis is only part of our obesity problem. Fast food's quality is poor. I would like to see healthy food being cheaper and encourage people to cook at home. Unfortunately cheap burgers make it cheaper not to cook a healthy meal. I'm fine with taxing in this instance, but I believe there is a better way. Remove all the subsidies on corn. That would automatically increase the price of fast food. No cheap corn to feed cows and no cheap corn syrup for sodas.

Answer 3

a few pros and cons that i can think of right off the top of my head:

pros--
- since fast food will be more expensive, maybe people will buy less and that will help with the severe health problems (obesity, heart disease, etc) that this country is facing partly as a result of bad nutrition & fast food.
- the government will have more money... i guess this is a pro? we do have ourselves pretty far in debt... and what better way to force citizens to pay for the presidents mistake then to tax things you know they're going to buy a lot of?

cons--
- this is obviously not going to be a good thing for people that don't have a lot of money and eat fast food constantly and feed it to their children everyday (this seems to be popular.)
- fat people and stoners are going to have less money for more food and substances.
- the government is imposing taxes on anything and everything they can and will continue to find more things to tax after this one is passed. it's just another stepping stone to total government control.

Answer 4

There are no "pros" to taxation of consumer choice, assuming you mean a "luxury" or "sin" tax, unless you believe outright socialism or civil war are pros. Listing the cons in full would lose most of the ADD crowd here, so lets just say government is a pedophile more than willing to play nanny.

Answer 5

Pros: Might make the citizens of the USA less fat.

Cons: If they were less fat they might be able to be the world superpower they want to be.