posted by gut
Yeah, there will be plenty of incentive to avoid it (legal and otherwise).
Now, a sugar tax is arguably as justifiable as alcohol or tobacco taxes. And this is what happens when you have public healthcare and other subsidies - you have to start allocating those costs, some way, to people who's lifestyles choices increase those costs.
And so just to cut to the chase - ultimately, Seattle will need to raise other tax revenues in order to provide additional food stamp benefits for poor people...so that poor people can afford the new sugar tax.
Yep. I remember once going to Cleveland during the college years and getting educated on their "sin tax" on alcohol by having to pay extra for beer (not a huge amount more, but for a college student, every extra dollar matters!) at some store. And let's face it, it's BS for any gubment to try to steer people away from certain products by over-taxing the shit out of them as part of an attempt to generate more revenue, so if they're going to do it for a couple things, then fuck it...do it to the shitty sugar drinks and shitty fast food, too.
Best to not do it for anything, but if you're going to do it for something, let the pop-guzzlers feel the pinch and not just us boozers! If you want the tl;dr version.
