{"id":1639505,"date":"2022-09-12T16:20:15","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T20:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1639505"},"modified":"2022-09-12T16:21:48","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T20:21:48","slug":"philadelphias-soda-tax-has-been-a-total-disaster-according-to-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/philadelphias-soda-tax-has-been-a-total-disaster-according-to-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia\u2019s Soda Tax Has Been A Total Disaster, According To Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fphiladelphias-soda-tax-has-been-a-total-disaster-according-to-study%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1639505&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>If nanny state bureaucrats want their citizenry to be underweight and compliant, then they need a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/federal-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">government<\/a> that is large and in charge, according to a new study.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/philadelphia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philadelphia<\/a> Mayor Jim Kenney (D) turned his attention to\u00a0obesity. The city government placed a tax on sugary sweetened beverages in hopes that it would deter sugar consumption. According to researchers from the University of Georgia, Philadelphians wound up consuming more sugar from other food items and even traveled across state lines to buy sodas after that tax was implemented.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/news.uga.edu\/soda-pop-taxes-dont-reduce-sugar-consumption\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flagged<\/a> by Georgia Today, the university\u2019s student newspaper, the surprising behavior \u201calmost entirely offset the decrease in sugar intake from colas and other sweet drinks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers concluded that the answer is not for folks like Kenney to simply stop trying to socially engineer certain policy outcomes, but for big government to step in and circumvent local authority and self-governance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan we influence behavior through taxation? Yes, but only if you enact a policy at broader levels of government, such as at the state or national level that prevents people from cross-border shopping,\u201d Felipe Lozano-Rojas, a lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.uga.edu\/soda-pop-taxes-dont-reduce-sugar-consumption\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe answer is no if you\u2019re enacting these policies at a local level,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>If that line of thinking sounds familiar, it is because the solution to life\u2019s problems is always the same for leftists: a bigger government with more power. Americans can never be trusted to make their own decisions because we are stupid, they imply not-so-subtly.<\/p>\n<p>Similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/c-s-lewis-tyranny-for-your-own-good\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">COVID lockdowns<\/a> or whatever social ailment currently plagues society, the usual suspects have a penchant for advocating a national policy that removes decision-making away from the individual.<\/p>\n<p>Their answer to America\u2019s problems is always varying forms of socialism: Experts in charge, tasked with centrally planning \u201csuccess\u201d based on science and data, while arrogantly thinking that they can predict the future and control human behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Even in coming up with alternative solutions, the answer isn\u2019t lowering taxes or a smaller government, according to researchers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we were to subsidize healthier options, especially for these groups, the tax might work better,\u201d Lozano-Rojas remarked. \u201cSubsidizing water, making it more accessible, particularly in places where tap water is not drinkable, these are things that might make going with the healthier choice easier. I think this issue requires more of a magnifying glass into these populations to determine the causes driving excessive sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It does not appear that deregulation or lowering federal sugar subsidies is even on Lozano-Rojas\u2019 radar, but why would it be? That sort of idea would limit government power.<\/p>\n<p>These folks do not realize that humans are creative. Humans find new ways of getting what they want. There is always an unintended consequence \u2014 whether it be good or bad \u2014 that stems from government policies and human choices. Those unintended consequences are always surprising.<\/p>\n<p>Centrally planning \u2014 whether it be an economy or the amount of sugar that humans absorb \u2014 fails because it cannot account for such surprises. The only thing that can account for surprises is capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>As legendary tech guru and economist George Gilder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/transcript\/capitalism-vs-socialism-economist-george-gilder-weighs-in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">once<\/a> put it on Mark Levin\u2019s TV show, \u201cCreativity is the foundation of capitalism. And this is \u2014 and socialism is based on planning. It\u2019s based on the assumption that we\u2019d already know all we need to know in order to plan our future, and so it leads to tyranny, and that\u2019s really the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiberty versus tyranny as someone once put it,\u201d he said to the author of \u201cLiberty vs. Tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, with this soda tax study and subsequent conclusions, we see how quickly folks on the Left go from liberty\u00a0 \u2014 allowing individuals the choice of which drinks to buy without added taxes \u2014 to tyranny \u2014 advocating a nationwide policy that includes preventing people from \u201ccross-border shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If nanny state bureaucrats want their citizenry to be underweight and compliant, then they need a government that is large and in charge, according to a new study. In 2017, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) turned his attention to\u00a0obesity. The city government placed a tax on sugary sweetened beverages in hopes that it would deter &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1639508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1639505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1639508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}