Fast Food and any way to stop it

Well, first of all, most people don't eat fast food 4-5 times per day.  Second, I don't think it's the taxes on cigarettes that has fewer people smoking - there is a whole shift in how we percieve smoking (not just health, but you almost never see the good guys smoking in TV or movies.  Watch "Thank You for Smoking" for a tongue-in-cheek expose).  Third, part of the problem is infrastructure.  It is a whole lot easier for most people to get a burger and fries than to get fruit and a lean sandwich.  Think of it is being like the issue for switching over to electric cars. I can get gas pretty much every couple of miles, much more than I ever need to use.  But if I drove an all-electric car, I would have a harder time getting charges or battery changes if I wanted to go more than a few dozen miles at a time.

Finally, I never go to Walmart.  I hate the store's treatment of it's workers and I hate the way the import everything from China and increase our dependency on Chinese manufacturing (helping to destroy our own bases at the same time).

My problem is that I do not believe the Gov't should be legislating morality.  The basic premise is about free choice and the right to choose.  The sin tax is a percieved legislation that could make some people morally feel better, but at the cost of our freedom to choose.

I go to fast food places about once a week.  It has become a tradition of sorts that my older son and I go for the pool and swim for an hour on the weekend and then we go to Burger King (or as he calls it "King Burger."

He orders the 4 piece chicken tender kids meal and I get either a Whopper Jr. w/ cheese and a small soda or a grilled chicken breast sandwich and a diet coke.  This meal is part of my weekly diet plan and I account for it in my calories.

Why do I share this?  Because you make the assumption that people going to fast food are fat because they eat at fast food places.  Wrong.  The people who are fat and have no future in getting thinner will be fat with or without a "sin tax."  And if the reason people are getting unhealthly because they can only afford fast food - how does adding a tax on this help them?

The answer to this is sadly a matter of personal responsibility.  People have to be responsible for their own health.  When they have to have medicadtion that I subsidize with my tax dollars, that is a different story - but aside from a "Big Brother" gov't that monitors our food intake, the situation you prescribe creates a cure worse then the disease.  IMO.

You are right, but the news story was about the Childhood Obesity Epidemic of our nation. Of course not all people that eat fast food are fat but it is one of the main reasons that there is a so called fat epidemic. The question though is why should the goverment tax something to try and make us quit eating it. We have a similar debate around here about smoking in puiblic places? Should the Govt. be allowed to regulate what a business owner allows in his establishment. The overriding answer was yes, and now Ohio is smoke free. (well Cincy is at least). Is it against our civil liberties? Does obesity, smoking, and drinking (so called Sins that we create and goverment wants to tax to make us stop) stop by taxing or is just another way to wrangle a few quarters out of our pockets. Do you think that obesity, smoking, drinking are a financial strain on our healthcare system? Least here there is a big ad campaign going to stop obesity and sure it' prolly tied in with a special k or Slim Fast promotion, but I guess you can say that smoking harms others but the report that they were showing was that healthcare needs related to obesity has gone through the roof and falling on taxpayers, and one of the upcoming plans to help ease it is to tax fast foods.

 Truly sorry if my original post was demeaning. I'm at work and my thoughts flow differant when i'm doing 3 - 4 things at once. Wal-Mart is the cheapest place and across the street, so I can get to it on my lunch break.

The ban on smoking in public places was based more on the effects of second hand smoke than it was based on effects of smoking. Someone smoking in a public place effects everyone in that location. A guy sitting next to me eating a cheeseburger isn't going hurt me.

My personal belief is that there needs to be a certain level of personal resposibility. The governement wasn't created to babysit us. 

 Maybe the Chinese are putting Ad-36 in the boxes they ship to Walmart.

After all the Chinese recalls such as the toy paint recalls, the fish, baby milk, etc, etc. Wow, maybe you could be on to something. Their way to take down America without firing a bullet. They are trying to make us all lazy and overweight? 

 That is intresting though.  

McDonald's is one of the few stocks I own that is still performing strong..let's not do anything to disrupt that.

OK, so where do you want to draw the line for "no fault of their own"? Suppose you have a mishap while training and get seriously injured? There are people who think you took your chances when you got on the bike in the first place - so is it your fault or an accident/act of God?  Should society pay the price?  Oh, and in case you are thinking about the insurance covering it, how about those people in your insurance group who are paying more premiums now even though they stayed healthy?

Eventually we all pay for one another at some level or another.

I hear this statement a lot, and it always makes me scratch my head....all legislation is the legislation of morality.  Every statute, code, ordinance is a decision either directly by the electorate, or by proxy from our elected officials about moral values.  If you don't believe this to be the case take a look at the criminal code/penal code of the state you live in....every single crime is the "legislation of morality".  The abolition of slavery is a "moral" decision, clean air, clean water acts are "moral" decisions.  Child labor laws are moral decisions, ect, ect, ect ad infinitum...

What the term "you can't legislate morality" means is that people will act immoral even in the face of legislation that proscribes certain conduct.  Theft for instance.  People are still always going to steal even though it's illegal.... "You can't legislate morality" means you can't force people to act moral, it doesn't mean that the government is somehow prohibited from passing laws that are moral decisions based upon sociatal norms...

There is little doubt fast food is a contributing factor, but is there a study indicating it's one of the main reasons or is that merely your opinion?

Other potential reasons could include: overtaxation - which leads to a necessity of two parents working and may result in less time to prepare nutritious meals, HFCS in a substantial percentage of prepared foods/drinks, a huge assortment of high fat/high calorie food/drink in grocery stores, too much reliance on prepared/processed foods, far too little physical activity, too much TV viewing, video games, poor school lunches, and many more.

So your solution is for government to force people into compliance with some unstated standard through punitive taxation? Just what we all need - more government intrusion and taxation!

Is this a trick question...are you related to the Thomas guy who started Wendy's??

x infinity......consider this with other forms of legislation, i.e. environmental protections

Have you all seen the commercials in defense of HFCS? 

Er... "what's wrong with a little corn syrup in moderation? It's made from corn, right?"

  Except that it's IN EVERYTHING! 

(p.s. not my intention to highjack, just adding)

At the risk of repeating a point already made (it's late and I tend to unconsciously skim when I'm tired...)

I have absolutely no desire to try and control or influence what others eat beyond, "Hey, I know you like 'X' and here's a killer recipe" type things when it comes to eating.

I don't support any kind of tax on fast food, even if it is "FOR THE CHILDREN!" (a sentiment I have come to hate since the Alar days) - because that is the parents problem to know and decide what kids eat, not a problem of the government.

I will readily admit I love Wendy's chicken sandwiches, and their chili, Jerry's subs, Taco Bell & KFC, and there are those days where nothing hits the spot better than a McD's double cheeseburger, and I do adore a Grand Slam breakfast from Denny's.

Do I eat any of those items often enough where a tax would actually reduce my consumption?  Nope.  And frankly, it's extremely disengenous to deicde that it's McD's fault that your little one is having weight problems.  Because the last time I checked, your 6 year old couldn't drive themselves to McD's for a morning McGriddle.  (Nor is it the governments fault that I can drive there myself.)

Somewhere along the way, personal responsibility has to come into play.

Don't ban it, provide alternatives.  Here are a few good ways to start:

1)  More grocery stores in urban neighborhoods.  Lack of access to fruits and vegetables is REAL.

2)  More community gardens.  Ditto.

3)  TEACH KIDS about growing, cooking, and eating healthy food.  See the Edible Schoolyard website if you want to see the premier example of this.

4)  Ask "regular" restaurants to include more whole grains.  Why ONLY white or fried rice at Chinese restaurants, and not brown?   Why ONLY 100% white flour hamburger buns, and not at least 50% whole wheat?  The FDA peps, "make half your grains whole!" but there is almost no way to do this eating at inexpensive restaurants.

I have said this many times and it needs to be repeated here...

Go on trying to ban all of the things you do not want all you like, smoking, drinking, porn, fast food, salt, you name it... EVENTIALLY there is going to be something SOMEONE else wants to ban that you like-- then you have no where to stand and no one to stand with you because you have attacked everyone else.

I do not like smoking and i do not smoke but I do not think it should be banned or taxed at a higher rate... WHY because I like alcohol and I do not want it banned or taxed higher... So while I am not a smoker I am a brother at arms with the smokers because right now they are the hated sin, after smoking is gone something else will be next-maybe alcohol, maybe fast food (which I do like), maybe triathlons.... traithletes are in the minority for sure...

be careful where you want to throw stones...