Macro Final Assignment

Without any further research, and in a couple of paragraphs, let me know if you think this is a good idea or a bad idea and WHY.

The city of Boulder, Colorado added a 2-cent per ounce excise tax on distributors of sugary drinks and three cities in California added 1- cent. With examples such as those, that’s about 16-30 cent per beverage. Because Walmart has such cheap prices when Walmart adds a tax you won’t really see the difference but if a local market, where prices may be a deciding factor, adds a tax you may be drawn away from that market. Local markets could suffer.

If you tax sugary drinks, you almost have to tax all sugary junk food such as donuts, cookies, candy, etc. But then by doing that, what about those who need sugar for their health like patients with diabetes. Those who need sugar may be upset that they now have to pay more.

Another argument could be if sugary drinks, soda gets taxed for being unhealthy why not tax the fast food industry? The health issues brought on by those who consume a lot of fast food are about the same if not worse than those who consume a lot of sugary drinks. The list could go on so where’s the limit? There are so many other things that could be taxed, like trash. If I’m buying soda chances are that on a regular basis, I probably have about 16 lbs of trash every time it gets picked up, if not more. I see some benefits in taxing sugary drinks but in totality I see more negative. I’m opposed mainly because taxing sugary drinks ultimately will open a flood gate of what can be taxed next and why.