Taxing Junk Food

Recently, Cook County, Illinois, the county that Chicago occupies, repealed their junk food tax after only two months. While the tax might decrease obesity, it comes at a very large cost, which is our state should not have a junk food tax. There should be no junk food tax because it would not completely solve the obesity problem, it would negatively impact the junk food industry and retailers that sell these products, and because most consumers are not in favor of the tax. The obesity problem is a complex issue that requires more than taxation to solve. The junk food industry and retailers’ sales would drop. People do not want to pay more for the products they normally buy. Taxing these junk food products alone would not solve the obesity

If the junk food were to be taxed then it would cause the junk food industry to lose business and their sales would drop. A vending machine company, in an area that had the tax, lost approximately sixty percent of its business when the tax went into effect. With these businesses losing revenue it causes job loss. One example of this is in Philadelphia, who has the tax, soda manufacturers’ sales dropped fifty percent since the tax passed, which caused layoffs (Sugar ‘Sin Tax’). Not only would it would negatively affect the manufactures, but it would also negatively affect the retailers who sell these foods. This is because if one town or county has the tax, but the next town over doesn’t, customers would go to a retailer in the other town so they wouldn’t have to pay as much. This would then negatively affect the economy in the town that has the tax. Sarah McBride a citizen of a town with the tax said "I don't even want to buy any products here anymore, I'm going to have to make adjustments to stop outside of my home area just to get pop for me and my kid. That's ridiculous," (Marotti, Ally). This tax could also cause confusion among retailers. Some of the retailers in the places with the tax have been confused on whether to tax some items. There have been accounts of mistakes made in the taxation of these products. For all of these reasons listed the tax would not be beneficial to the

Most of the consumers who use purchase junk food products would not be happy with having to pay more for their products. They should be able to choose what they want to purchase without the interference of the government. In Chicago at the one of the retailers who sold these foods had to inform customers who were going to purchase these items. The cashier at this retailer said, "The people that cashiers have talked to so far mostly have expressed disgust for Illinois and Cook County in particular,” (Marotti, Ally). If we implemented the tax here, it could cause some of the citizens to be unhappy. It could also hurt some of the low income households that purchase these products. One of the customers purchased many sodas in preparation the day before the tax said "I think it's ridiculous, especially since it's only for Cook County," the 42-year-old said. "If you're on a money crunch or something and you have a budget, 20 cents is still 20 cents," (Marotti, Ally). If this tax were to pass some people would not be able to afford the products that they usually buy. These low income households also depend more on unhealthier options because they normally cost less than the health foods. We should not have this tax because it would hurt low income households, it would make people unhappy with the government, and it would would cause consumers to unhappy because they are