I was just pointing out a extreme point of view which I know would not be in-forced. :p

I would like to see higher taxes on all unhealthy foods but I know my Government would just squander the money.

Please define "unhealthy food".

Junk food.

That's it I am done and dusted.

And what is "Junk food"? :)

Perhaps McDonalds should be subjected to a higher rate of tax on it's World Cup Special Big Mac. ;) Feast your eyes on this burger from hell:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5003998.stm

Excellent. I wonder where KFC's Chicken Popcorn features on the list. That stuff is a real arterie clogger.

P.S. That is weird I just quoted a post by STEED as soon as he posted it and then when I completed my quote/reply his original post has been deleted I assume by him. Very strange.

It should not be too difficult to come up with a definition. Even rich foods like my pizza or kebab examples have nutironal value for all the calories and fat. If you are active food like that in balance should be no problem. I have difficulty thinking a peanut butter (flavoured paste) filled pretzel type thing has much value. One thing, high end chocolates and pastries are eaten less often and have fewer cruud ingredients...and are more expensive. Home made are eaten even less and you can control what you put into it. Manufactured snacks, and fast food (highly processed) snacks have high calories, fat and little else to commend them. These can be taxed even higher. Point is though I am getting fed up with this as much as the anti-smoking crusades etc... more of the state trying to force people to be good. :down:

I agree that this is the way forward. If we tax ciggies to something like 75% of the price then why not the same with big macs etc?

Also I think we should tax alcohol big style, maybe have it like in Norway.
Still they have an alcholism problem and when they come over to the UK they lose it.

Only thing is if you tax Mcdeess and Bugger King then people would lose jobs as they places close down.....

I completely disagree, and voted no. Anyone who ever creates a tax should have the mindset that all taxes are evil, if a necessary evil; just as all government is evil, if equally necessary. And as for Steed's cry for shutting down anything he considers unhealthy: as soon as you give that kind of power to anyone, you have to ask yourself when someone is going to use that power to shut YOU down.

Yes, obesity is bad, just as riding a motorcycle without a helmet is bad; but for a society to be truly free, you can't force people to give up something because it's bad for them. You can only prevent them from doing things that are bad for you, or the populace in general. In my opinion, the powers you want to grant are nothing short of dictatorial.

No, thanks.

Why are taxes and government evil? I think your basic premise here is flawed, even though its a common enough sentiment these days. Its interesting that the people who say this (and I'm not including you since I don't know you) have been educated at public schools, are protected by publicly funded police and military, use publicly funded roads or mass transit to commute to work, and on and on.

As I said, a necessary evil. I also said that anyone empowered to create new taxes should have that mindset. The true evil I see involving government is the mindset that they can fix any problem if they throw enough of our money at it. A good example of this was the claim by our last president, Bill Clinton, and his supporters that they balanced our Federal budget. On the face of it this is true, but the means they chose to even things out was a raise in taxes. My feeling at the time was that if raising taxes can solve our problems, then why not raise them to 100%, then just give us what you think we need to live on. What scares me is that there are people in power who actually think that's a good idea.

Government by nature produces no revenue, so taxes are vital for any government function. I call them evil mainly because I think it's dangerous to trust anyone who calls them good.

So anyone who has been educated at a public school, are protected by publicy funded police and military and use publicy funded roads or mass transit to commute to work looses the right to express their opinion or to even have one.

:up:

Not sure why you are quoting me to make that assertion, since I wasn't saying or even implying any such thing.

My own view of taxes is that they are, in themselves, neither good nor evil, but can be put to either end.

That is a little off topic though but I was curious about your choice of words.