Re:Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to...
by stale2002 on Sunday August 21, 2016 @02:17PM
(#12332006)
Fair point.
Though I would argue that those options are only marginally better, and may as well be the same.
For example, most people can't tell the difference between a 20 dollar wine and a 200 dollar wine. So the rich and poor effectively have access to the same thing.
Re:Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to...
by CydeWeys on Sunday August 21, 2016 @07:40PM
(#12333265)
I think you're veering too far into prescriptive territory here. Yes, most people can't tell the difference between good wine and great wine in double-blind taste tests, but almost nobody ever drinks wine in double-blind conditions. Generally when you're drinking great expensive wine you know that it is expensive, and you enjoy it more as a result. Psychological effects are real effects when we're talking about how much enjoyment people derive from things.
And by the way, the poor absolutely are not drinking $20 bottles of wine. Alcohol consumption is significantly higher in the rich than in the impoverished, because when you struggle with putting food on the table everyday and keeping a roof over your head, any kind of alcohol is a luxury. I don't think you really know how bad it is for lots of people. A large number of Americans don't even get the choice between $20 and $200 wine.
You absolutely can though. There are lots of premium soda brands out there on the market that cost significantly more than Coca-Cola that are made with better ingredients (such as real sugar, not HFCS), that are healthier for you, that use better artificial sugars, that have real flavoring so they don't need as much sugar to taste good (see GuS), etc. Or compare the homogenized product of "Simply Orange" (a Coca-Cola brand) to real non-additive orange juice that costs several times as much but is way more delicious. Or hell, look at how insanely expensive kombucha is ...
My point is that you are introducing a completely artificial rule by limiting things to Coca-Cola, when in fact there is an entire spectrum of drinks out there, and you can spend significantly more money to get a significantly better product. The very rich do not drink nearly as much Coca-Cola as the poor; they have the money to afford better options, and so they do.