Time for food for thought

We tax liquor and cigarettes, neither of which is essential for life. Then why not tax something that is bad for health and generate funds in the process!

Over half of the population eats fast food once a week with 20% eating junk at least every other day. Fast food should be a rare treat.

Let the government tax our fatty treats and let them use the money to pay off debt, create new jobs or rebuild the infrastructure.

And here’s another idea.

We can use money generated from purchase of fast food to subsidise prices of healthy food — fruits and vegetables. At present, fast food is cheaper than a healthy meal and more accessible.

There are fast food restaurants everywhere, but healthy and cheap options are not. By routing money from junk to healthy food, we won’t prevent anyone from eating a burger but will just make it easy to buy a healthy alternative.

Additional taxes on fatty food will also create a disincentive. Consumers will be forced to consume healthier ‘non-taxed’ food. Consumption of fatty chips, fries and burgers will go down and consumption of fruit and vegetable will see a rise. With more people buying healthy bio products, the country’s farms and agricultural economy will prosper. The time is right for a ‘fat’ tax. Many will disagree, but isn’t this just one more thing that makes our country great.