Monday, November 02, 2009

Soft Drink Tax as Stupid as Dildo Laws

Now playing at a place near you:
 - - STUPIDITY - -

From the same country that brought you this-












Now this-


In a recent article by some dude named Dr. Mao, he explains to us why the hell we should not be drinking sodas. Because they will make you unhealthy. Aren't the majority of people living in the world unhealthy anyways? Either too skinny or too fat or too something. No one is just quite right. Either way, he brings up the issue of taxing "sugary" beverages. Whether or not this would include orange juice or drinks not from concentrate is unclear. Seems like it's pretty much just "sugary drinks." Basically, the tax would be levied to help off-set healthcare costs and help stop soda consumption. How is that fair to anyone involved?

I guess my problem with this peice-of-shit idea is not that it's supposed to help pay for health-care, whatever. It's the continuation of the trend in our society to completely remove the individual's responsibility to themselves. I don't understand why people continually feel the need to tax the hell out of things that can potentially be bad for you. There are so many conflicting surveys, studies, blah blah. No one knows what to believe anymore. In fact, some scientists believe soda is good for you. But we live in a society in which we take no responsibility for our own actions. People love making excuses for why things are the way they are and love putting blame on things that are not the actual problem. If you've ever done any kind of problem solving exercises or ever had any kind of legitimate job you've probably heard something about the root-cause. Basically, when you have a problem you want to find the root of it, so that you can fix the problem. Taxing sodas is the equivalent of chopping tree limbs off a tree and wondering why it won't fall down. Stupidity. It's not quite as stupid as the Texas law restricting people to only six dildos, but it's pretty close. Yes indeed, it's hilarious to me that at some point there was some discussion of dildos and artificial vaginas by some old-ass Republicans.

Cigarettes, fast food, health-care, dildos; it's all part of a bigger debate about how involved the government, non-profit organizations and the like should be with our personal lives. I understand that there is a certain need for social services, affordable healthcare and all that non-sense. But where do you draw the line? Should our government be able to tax us just because they want to do that? Isn't that why the American Revolution occurred? The whole idea of the Boston Tea Party had to do with this specific idea. How far into our lives should the government be? How long do we stand by while our personal liberties are being eroded away to nothing? Should I really have to feel this nervous when I see a police officer even when I am doing nothing wrong because of the mere fact that I realize I live in a state in which law enforcement officials can detain, beat and murder and then get away with it.

Back to the issue at hand though, some folks on the other side of the issue will tell me, "hey, buddy, you know those fatties who are drinking all the sodas are putting my health care costs higher, so this is a tax to PROTECT me." I've heard this argument from many, many people. It is selfish ideas like these that cause suicidal thoughts that keep me up at night.

First of all, what?? Just because someone drinks a soda, or 15, does not mean you'll see your healthcare costs raise. In fact, the $150 billion that a tax on sodas would net will be taken out of everyone's pockets. Not just the fatties and the sicklies. It'll be your's an I's. At the movie theater (ticket sales generate almost no sales for theaters), at your favorite restaurant (restaurants love over-pricing their sodas; they are cheap to serve and extremely profitable), and even at your job (I've had a high-stress job and the only joy I ever got out of the day was going to the fucking coke machine and buying myself a nice cold Diet-DP; now I'll have to carry a bunch of fucking pennies around with me just to get something from a vending machine.)

Alright, I know I'm rambling on and on now, but seriously. If they start taxing masturbation I may as well kill myself, I won't have anything left in this stupid world.

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