I have just had a brilliant idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Question

Why don't they put a tax on over-eating? Think about it - we want to wear nice clothes and be slim - but if we over-eat we wouldn't have any money to spend if we were heaving taxed. Am I just dreaming?

Answer 1

Glutton tax. LOL!

Answer 2

So exactly how would you monitor overeating? I have seen this idea presented in the media, they called it 'tax the fat and I think the same now as I did then, it is an abominable idea. Not only are we all taxed to a greater extent than many realize, but this sort of thing is clearly a human right issue. Just the sort of idea that politicians come up with to divert attention from the things that matter. Ok people who are not too fat are likely to have less health problems than those who are nearer to average, but the same goes for people who are excessively skinny, (they are less healthy than people of more or less average weight) so should we tax the skinny? Did I hear a no? Perhaps it is better for individuals to make up their own minds to have a healthy lifestyle than simply be penalized for not following what someone prescribes as healthy. Or would you like to see people taxed for not sleeping enough? That too is bad for your health, and can leave a person looking awful, as well as feeling like a zombi. At one time there was a light tax, this meant that the more windows a persons house had and the bigger they were the more tax they paid, sound good? I don't think so, perhaps since there is so much CO² going into the air and contributing to global warming we should all pay a air tax? If someone don't pay up they have their breathing rights removed, no not that one either? My opinion is that essential things such as food should not be taxed at all.

Answer 3

Firstly, you would have to identify what is that level that once overstepped is considered over-eating. A person with a high metabolism could easily over-eat compared with somebody who has a slow metabolism. So these people would have to pay a tax just because they are feeding themselves. On the other hand, you'd get those with very slow metabolism, who would over-eat even if they haven't reached that mark that we now identified as the line of overeating. For example, compared to other people I overeat a little bit but I work it off by going to the gym. I love food and I feel that if I 'worked for it' in the gym then I should be able to eat it without having to pay a tax. In theory, your idea is good, rationing of food has worked before during the war and those people weren't fat.

Answer 4

Not everyone is concerned with "wearing nice clothes and being slim".

Why should people have to pay tax on doing something that doesn't necessarily bother them, to make it easier for the more vain and self conscious to slim down?

Over eating is a problem that will not go away overnight. Putting a tax on overeating, won't stop it. If anything it'll make things a lot harder for a lot people. It's an addiction, something beyond their control. Rather than taxing people, wouldn't it be a better idea to promote healthy eating and offer support and advice?

Answer 5

You're right; it IS a brilliant idea, but think of all the people that *want* to over-eat. True, they already haven't got the money to buy nice clothes, but wouldn't you say that putting a tax on over-eating would be similar to the smoking bans? People see it as taking away their liberties - now we haven't become civilized to let our lives be lead by a higher power, now did we?

Answer 6

Hi if you were to visit any place in the world and found that one could be taxed for over eating ( keep in mind that people and not we ourselves would always say that we over eat), would we want to return to such a place and would we not think that these people are very narrow minded, and also would you not feel hard done by just because you wanted to enjoy that extra bite? Of course then there is the question of how to measure out this tax at what leavel or weight would be the right for you i.e if we start at 8 stone who is to say that this is the right weight for you? no I say leve well alone don't go there!!!!

Answer 7

I have a brilliant idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!Why dont they put a huge sign outside all the major shopping centres saying"FAT PEOPLE THIS WAY>"When they follow the arrow which leads to the right hand side of the supermarket they are horrified to find that their section of the supermarket has been partioned off with a ceiling hieght electric fence and on the shelves there is nothing but healthy food containing no more than 5g of fat.they would be thin in no time.what do ya think.lol.x

Answer 8

Brilliant absolutely brilliant. Yes those fat lazy people who stuff themselves stupid then moan cause nhs wont help them slim down even though they still eating for England. I agree with you.
They should pay for 2 air seats if they take up 2 and weight excess should be charged.They should also pay for reinforced seating in cinema and extra strength hospital beds.
They eat cause they greedy. They dont exercise cause they are lazy.
And dont it seem unfair when you go to shop and buy a dress etc in a size 8 and it the same price in size 24 plus. even though the amount of materiel etc used is ten fold

Answer 9

Just one correction -Helen C. There is no tax on food except that consumed in restaurants & hot take away food. Interesting point though. If overeating was taxed, my next-door neighbours could pay off the entire national debt in six months, and finance the building of 500 new schools and hospitals.

Answer 10

The trouble is, how would you be able to judge overeating?
A builder needs more food than an office worker because of the amount that he burns up. I also have to eat a fair amount of food, as I'm rather slim and tend to burn my food the minute I've eaten it. If I stopped eating as much, I'd be even more underweight.
You'd find that those with plenty of money would eat masses. The government would enjoy taking the poorer peoples money and just sit back and watch them getting thinner.

Answer 11

How exactly would we tax "over-eating"? Would some Government official come knocking on people's doors the end of every day wanting to see the dirty plates and bowls? A more acheivable and practical solution would be to put a really high tax on food with little nutritional value. If people really want to sit there putting more and more processed junk in their expanding stomachs then they can pay for it. All people want to do is shove a plastic tray in the oven, slop it on a plate (if they can be bothered, and why bother? there's no need to wash up a plastic tray) and shovel it in without even tasting it or looking at it while they stare dumbly at a TV screen. People don't care what they put in their bodies as long as all they have to do is unwrap it and heat it up.
There are so many ready prepared veg now that we don't even need to own a peeler anymore, and people are apparantly completely oblivious to the fact that that ready-peeled carrot they're dumping in some probably over-salted water has more than likely been sat there in it's chlorine-ridden juicy orange sweat for several days, and that as soon as a carrot is harvested, the nutrients begin to degrade. People would actually eat that than spend a whole 30 seconds peeling and chopping a fresh one. That's the people that actually eat fresh veg at all. The closest a lot of people get to vegetables is the lettuce in a Big Mac.
Kids get nothing in their lunch boxes or on their plates that hasn't been in at least one production line. Everything comes covered in bizarrely orange breadcrumbs, and they don't even get cheese anymore without that being chemically altered in some way so it's stringy or shaped like dinosaurs.
Now, we're turning into a nation of overweight people, and I am astounded that some people cannot work out how. We would rather drive to the shops than walk for ten minutes, we'd rather shuffle round a shopping centre like sheep in a field than actually spend time in an actual field and get some fresh air and exercise, we'd rather sit there and stare at a box than speak to each other. No wonder there are so many overweight depressed grey people in this country.

Putting a massive tax on food and drink that has no nutrional value would be the only way you could acheive what you're alluding to, you simply couldn't tax "over-eating" because it's not a commodity. There also clearly needs to be some of incentive to encourage people to buy fresh produce, eat more fruit and veg and less meat, as well as all processed food in general, obviously. "Low fat" food usually is low-fat, yeah, but all that processing changes the structure of the fats in there and often turns them into something worse, but people think they're doing themselves a favour by eating them. Tax the crap to the hilt and subsidize fresh seasonal local produce until people have no choice but to make an actual effort to feed themselves.
You wouldn't run a car on golden syrup because it's (usually) an expensive purchase that you don't want to ruin, but people cannot extend the same logic to their bodies. Where's the sense in that?