Instigator / Con

Club

1503

rating

debates

46.15%

won

Topic

#1370

Junk Food Tax

Status

Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics

Better arguments

Better sources

Better legibility

Better conduct

After 1 vote and with 5 points ahead, the winner is...

Club

Tags

Health

Parameters

Publication date: 09.08.2019 12:26PM
Last updated date: 09.17.2019 11:43PM
Type: Standard
Number of rounds: 4
Time for argument: One day
Max argument characters: 10,000
Voting period: One week
Point system: Multiple criterions
Voting system: Open

Contender / Pro

billbatard

1294

rating

debates

18.0%

won

Description

Junk Food Tax

Round 1

Club

09.08.2019 12:28PM

Con

I waive, in case of trolling and/or forfeiting.

billbatard

09.08.2019 12:31PM

Pro

People are stupid, the nanny state is annoying but face it, in this day and age most adults are clueless and do need a nanny to loo out for their welfare

Round 2

Club

09.08.2019 04:24PM

Con

Despite your trolling about nannys and adults, I will continue to debate properly.

It seems you think that a tax would help guide adults into making better choices but it doesn't, in fact the tax won't make a dent in current obesity in Americans, as proved my points and sources below..

My Points:

(copied from my other debates)

Junk food, the despised product by most "healthy" Americans. Government officials are starting to blame this food for the cause of obesity in America. They are creating a junk food tax hoping to decrease the amount of obese citizens. But it just won’t work!

Now this tax isn’t new. In 2011, Denmark introduced the world first tax relating to this matter, “The Fat Tax”. Less than 12 months after it was introduced, it was taken away. Danish people were going other countries to buy the cheap, good tasting junk food. If we implement this tax , some junk food driven people would go to other countries to buy it! )

The tax has not faced the real problem, promotions and advertising. Health campaigns funded by the government were crushed by the junk food marketing. Frito lay itself spend 146 million dollars a year on marketing. The problem of obesity is too complex for just a junk food tax to eliminate it."The bottom line is that the tax isn't going to make anybody healthier, it's not going to make a dent in a problem as complex and serious as obesity, and we're certainly not going to solve the complexities of the health -care system with a tax on soda pop." Kevin W. Keane a worker at the American Beverage Association says. Also a report from the Tax Policy Center said that nutrition taxes are understudied, so it’s very risky to implement this tax.

A study from Cornell university, found that in Berkeley the cities obesity rates didn’t lower as much as people thought. So if you are thinking about a massive curb in obesity, it won’t happen. It’s bad for economy too. The potato chip industry is worth 26 billion dollars and the candy industry is worth 79 billion dollars, so how much do you think the junk food industry is worth? You are putting a industry worth billions at risk just for a tax that won’t work and people hate. A junk food tax in Hungary was released in 2011, it only lowered the consuming of junk food products by 3.4%, and the raised the consuming of healthy products by 1.1% also thus proving that it won’t curb obesity that much.

This proves 1, THE TAX DOESN'T WORK

The junk food tax is just making the obese poor. They will keep on buying the junk food for a more expensive price. Instead of having a cheaper alternative to healthy food, they’ll have 2 expensive options. Junk food activates the same centers in your brain that cocaine does, so it’s really easy to get addicted. “Food companies will spend millions of dollars to discover the most satisfying level of crunch in potato chips and their scientists will test for the perfect amount of fizzle in a soda,” “Don't get caught in their traps.” says Shayna Komar, a licensed registered dietitian.

The tax is just hurting the poor and helping the rich. Poor people who are used to buying the cheaper, shelf stable, and convenient unhealthy option will have to pay more, making them even more poor. All the relief programs will be useless. The poor people will just have no choice in food resulting in starvation. The whole point of tax was to get people less sick, but in the end you would just make more people sick!

This proves 2, IT WILL MAKE THE POOR POORER.

http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000299371

http://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=9057

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm http://discoverer.prod.sirs.com/discoweb/disco/do/article?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BARTICLE%3BART%3B0000299371 c/articles/PMC3828689/

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=MultiTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&docId=GALE%7CA255968437&docType=Brief+article&sort=RELEVANCE-SORT&contentSegment=&prodId=MSIC&contentSet=GALE%7CA255968437&searchId=R2&userGroupName=elli13047&inPS=true

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/how-many-people-are-poor-united-states

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/myths/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/arleneweintraub/2018/01/10/should-we-tax-junk-foods-to-curb-obesity/#1eeb024d7df6

http://www.howmanyarethere.us/how-many-people-have-diabetes-in-the-us/

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170223006278/en/26-Billion-Potato-Chips-Market-Global-Industry

https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/candy-market

CHOICE January 2017 edition.

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/frito-lay-names-cmo-100547/

https://www.piedmont.org/living-better/why-is-junk-food-so-addictive

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306919215000561

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/should-we-tax-unhealthy-foods-and-drinks/full

billbatard

09.09.2019 04:58AM

Pro

if you want less of something tax it

Round 3

Club

09.09.2019 07:22PM

Con

if you want less of something tax it

You have absolutely no resources. I literally just proved the tax wouldn't work, so therefore you won't get less of "it".

Stop Trolling and VOTE CON

billbatard

09.10.2019 01:39AM

Pro

it you tax something people will consume less of it that is pretty self evident no? but here -> https://quotefancy.com/quote/903440/Ronald-Reagan-If-you-want-more-of-something-subsidize-it-if-you-want-less-of-something

Round 4

Club

09.10.2019 07:22PM

Con

Thank you for responding.

That was talking not about the JF tax. It has now been shown that it doesn't work by my claims.

billbatard

09.10.2019 11:43PM

Pro

Well according to ronald reagan any time you tax something you discourage its use

Dr.Franklin

09.11.2019 12:05AM

-->

@billbatard

According to Ronald Reagan????????

He is like the total anti-socialist

Club

09.10.2019 11:49PM

-->

@Barney

@bmdrocks21

@Christen

@WaterPhoenix

Vote pls

Club

09.10.2019 08:54PM

-->

@bmdrocks21

lol

bmdrocks21

09.10.2019 02:26AM

-->

@Club

Dude, you just got roasted.

Club

09.08.2019 04:25PM

-->

@Trent0405

A junk food tax is a so-called sin tax, taxes which stop people from doing something.

Trent0405

09.08.2019 03:54PM

Also, this is debate # 800.

Trent0405

09.08.2019 03:53PM

Club I've got a question, does a sin tax, tax junk food?

Barney

09.11.2019 12:04AM

Criterion

Con

Tie

Pro

Points

Better arguments

3 point(s)

Better sources

2 point(s)

Better legibility

1 point(s)

Better conduct

1 point(s)

Reason:

Some credit to pro for a very concise case...

Nanny-State:
This argument was that people should not be free, that someone else should make the decisions for them; but failed to link to any direction this lack of freedom should take and why.

Obesity:
Con argues that obesity would not drop to the rate someone would argue it would from the tax. Sadly this highlighted the BoP failure from pro, as con's arguments were based around a better debater who would build such a case.

Wealth Disparity:
Con argues that income inequality would be increased by the tax, potentially even leading to isolated cases of starvation. This is a fantastic stand alone reason to reject it.

---

Sources:
Con, please integrate your sources a little more (the only ones that should be listed, are the ones directly referenced; I am still awarding the point for those)...
So a single quote, vs a well researched case such as a Business Wire report on the potato chip industry which the tax would harm: no contest (while I don't believe a tax on potato chips would actually lead to anyone starving, the claim was made and supported, and then unchallenged).

Conduct:
While pro's behavior was suspect, being poor at arguing is not a crime.