Hungary levees “fat tax”

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Hungary’s New Fat Tax

A Fat Tax may be the solution to maladies caused by obesity.

For the hungry in Hungary, junk food is no longer a cheap option. The Hungarian government is creating a law to enforce a junk-food tax or Fat Tax to discourage citizens from eating unhealthy food and simultaneously generate health care funds.

The concept of a Fat Tax is neither unique nor unusual. Just after the 1942 Pearl Harbor attack, American physiologist A.J. Carlson made a radical suggestion: If the nation’s largest citizens were charged a fee—say, $20 for each pound of overweight—we might feed the war effort overseas while working to subdue an injurious luxury. At least American three states implemented fat taxes, only to repeal them later.

I'm fat thanks to junk food

The Hungarian law will levy taxes on foods with high sugar and salt foods, excess “bad” carbohydrates, and caffeine. Junk food manufacturers, not consumers, will be taxed (but will probably pass the additional costs to consumers.

The Fat Tax is a clever way of generating much-needed revenues. If this bill becomes law, people may learn to eat a more healthy diet. This nation is one of the most indebted countries in Eastern Europe with budget deficit of 77% GDP. The projected annual revenue of the Fat Tax is 30 billion forint ($160 million.. Given the heated debates on the budget and deficit ceiling, America could learn a lot from Hungary.

The measure is expected to raise $100 million a year to help offset state-covered health care debt, which sits at about $534 million.

Of course, there’s a flaw in the bill. The Fat Tax, nicknamed, the hamburger tax, will not apply to a hamburger, the new Fat Tax, officially passed July 12, exempts fast food corporations. Not surprisingly, the bill faced stiff opposition, or propaganda, from global fast-food corporations and some restaurants who argue that salty, sugary, and fatty foods aren’t unhealthy.

The CIAA, a European food and drink lobby group, says [Fat Taxes are] “discriminatory” because they target specific types of food and tend to hit low-income groups hardest. At the same time it says such taxes are cumbersome to collect, economically damaging and have no proven potential to improve eating habits. Danish obesity rates, it says, have risen despite having a tax on candy since 1922.

Eat a healthy diet rather than junk food

The CIAA objections are obviously based on economics rather than facts. Hungary’s Fat Tax is more comprehensive than Denmark’s, which appears to render the statement inapplicable. Further, The United Kingdom Parliament and medical researchers seem to disagree with the CIAA and fast-food multinational corporations. The U.K. is close to passing a Fat Tax law. A U.K Mail, post entitled Fat Tax ‘is the best way to cut obesity’: Treat junk food like cigarettes, argues the OECD.

[T]he measures would give England’s 52million population an extra 270,000 years of good health…Some studies suggest a Fat Tax alone would encourage the shift to a healthier diet and reduce deaths from heart disease and other illnesses by 3,200 a year.

The Lancet medical journal, looked at how to tackle obesity and related ill-health in seven countries—England, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa. Researchers found that a combined approach of taxing unhealthy foods, subsidizing healthy options, restricting food advertising and improving labeling was cheaper than simply treating those who develop heart disease or cancer as a result of an unhealthy diet.

[Researchers] said the strategy would pay for itself in about half the countries examined by reducing the cost to health services, and in other countries, it would become cost effective after a maximum of 15 years.

More than 1.6 billion people in the world are either overweight or obese. The United States is the 9th fattest nation in the world.

Rank Country % Overweight/
Obese
1. Nauru 94.5
2. Federated States of Micronesia 91.1
3. Cook Islands 90.9
4. Tonga 90.8
5. Niue 81.7
6. Samoa 80.4
7. Palau 78.4
8. Kuwait 74.2
9. United States 74.1
10. Kiribati 73.6
11. Dominica 71.0
12. Barbados 69.7
13. Argentina 69.4
14. Egypt 69.4
15. Malta 68.7
16. Greece 68.5
17. New Zealand 68.4
18. United Arab Emirates 68.3
19. Mexico 68.1
20. Trinidad and Tobago 67.9

Source: World Health Organization.

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Dorothy Anderson

I want to know what you think and why, especially if we disagree. Civil discourse is free speech: practice daily. Always question your perspective.
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12 years ago

It is shocking to hear that we are the 9th fattest country in the world! To help raise awareness on the current obesity epidemic in America, please visit: collegeeationgdisorders.webs.com

12 years ago

Americans can’t agree on what is real, period. (Evolution vs Creationism). The majority are still living in imaginary land. Try telling them what they should be eating!!

Jess
12 years ago

I’m shocked, shocked I tells ya that the land of plenty we live in, is in the top ten. We should be striving for number one dammit, so we can say we are better than everyone else at being fat. Do not make me make the sarcasm disclaimer I’ll get upset and maybe cry.

12 years ago

I’m glad you asked, because I’ve got a solution to that problem that I’ve contemplated, blogged and posted on numerous times.
Let’s provide universal health insurance.
Once done, it’s not an invasion of privacy for a certified provider to weigh you.
If they find you are obese, they put you on a program to lose weight. We’re not talking boot camp here, but just good sense.
You will be provided with all the help you could possibly need from mental health counseling to shopping advise. The program will even go so far as to go shopping with you and go into your home and help you cook healthy. You will be required to log all caloric input to your body. That will be easy also as it will be done by computer that will automatically download to a central system and to your provider.

This will all be gradual, but with goals in mind.
If after a certain length of time you have made no progress toward getting your health under control, you will be unplugged from the system and only provided with emergency health care which will consist of little more than “comfort measures only.”

With this program, we not only lead the person to water, but we provide extreme measures that encourage, help and motivate them to drink.

Same type of program applies for tobacco, alcohol and drug addicts.

People can eat good tasty food. People can eat luxurious food. People just need to learn how.

If I’ve left anything out that might be required for such a program or overlooked some major or minor flaw, I would love to hear about it.
I don’t see how this could be considered unconstitutional. Healthcare is not a constitutional right.

lazersedge
12 years ago

lol We are the only one of the modern, industrialized nations on the list. Why does that not surprise me. This country is overstuffed with overstuffed, narcissistic, self indulgent people. Of course, at the other end of the spectrum are those who are too poor to be able to afford to eat healthy foods.

12 years ago

The United States is the 9th fattest nation in the world. … and we have barely heard of the other eight.

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