Re:Children's daily sugar consumption halved just a year aft...
by skatebear on Wednesday July 10, 2024 @04:55AM
(#40924992)
Is this tax sized to cover for that externalities or the amount is decided in other basis (likely to maximize government revenue)?
Is the collected money exclusively used to counter the externalities or is the spending left to the discretion of the government?
I'm asking from ignorance, but if the answer of any of those questions is no then the purpose of the tax is not to make up for the externalities.
Re:Children's daily sugar consumption halved just a year aft...
by rsynnott on Wednesday July 10, 2024 @05:15AM
(#40925093)
> Is this tax sized to cover for that externalities
No, nothing like it. The final costs to the state of excessive sugar consumption are _vast_. This levy is primarily to discourage people from consuming loads of sugar.
> Is the collected money exclusively used to counter the externalities
While I don't know, I'd be very surprised. That sort of bucketed approach to tax collection/use is _extremely_ inefficient; the only place it can possibly be justified is social insurance.
> There are a lot of externalities from having an unhealthy populace, this fee can help to counter that.