Soda Ban a Meaningless Gesture With Limited Effect

Of the many problems in New York City, sugary drink consumption is not the most pressing, nor is it any of the government's business

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When it comes to this subject bloomberg wants to align it to the ban on smoking in and around public buildings and facilities. There is a huge difference between someone in the next booth over smoking a cigar and someone drinking a gallon of some sugared up carbonated beverage. Drinking a bathtub sized soda doesnt have any health risk for the people around them.

I have to agree with the author of this article that the public officials have more important things to worry about than the size of someones soda container, try to reduce real crime instead of forcing capitalism to parade around as a crime. there is enough injustice happening in this country that needs attention, like illegal immigrants being allowed to get $20k on a tax return because they claimed children that have never stepped foot in America after not paying taxes. We have an over abundance of worthless people collecting wellfare that refuse to get a job because there grand mother's dog got a splinter. make the lazy and worthless people on welfare that arent truely disabled ( which i think is a farce this day in age anyway, especially when you see paraplegics working at walmart as door greeters) work for their handout doing things like picking up trash on the side of the roads, helping buid houses for habitats for humanity, and giving out food at a soup kitchen. The government is cutting back the military due to a need to reduce spending when the service men and women are being a productive part of society, yet they let a third of our countries budget go to worthless, lazy individuals that are just a burden on our society.

If mayor bloomberg needs something to take shots at to feel good about himself, then he needs to do something to actually clean up his city instead of harrassing the people that elected him into the office he holds. And to be honest, it would make my day to see the soda companies sell 2-liters and 3-liters in six packs just to spite him. I personally would smuggle a 2-liter into a movie in my pants if it came to that under the pretense that it was just my manhood that was buldging because it is a crime to grab me to find out for sure, and also to try and make me expose myself.

America needs to wake up and look at the situation it is putting itself in, because our government officials are just a waste of tax payers money at this point, especially if they cant do what needs to be done to get us out of the hole that they have dug us into.

David of FL 1:22PM June 02, 2012

Thank you all for the comments. The version of the article I submitted contained hyperlinks to a few sources and other articles. "The Road to Serfdom" is the title of FA Hayek's classic, and while I agree that this tiny little regulation won't send us inexorably toward socialism, it's a small step as part of a much longer march.

Here are a few links to things I reference:

Anthony Gregory's post on the soda ban:

http://blog.independent.org/2012/05/31/the-right-to-drink-a-supersized-coke/

A PDF of the condensed version of "The Road to Serfdom": http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/upldbook43pdf.pdf

My article on the 2010 Trans Fat Ban: http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/03/trans-fat-regulation-government-opinions-contributors-art-carden.html

Art Carden of AL 8:27AM June 02, 2012

The road to serfdom? Please. Hyperbole has its place, but please don't dishonor serfs by comparing their plight to the disgruntled consumer who really needs to buy more than a pound of soda in a single container. And the slippery slope argument is specious. Does anyone really think that this rather mild regulation will lead to the repeal of the 13th amendment?

I agree that this one plan will not end obesity as we know it, but it will likely make a meaningful dent in the obesity epidemic in one large American city, and will therefore lower the huge negative externalities obesity imposes on society. This is why I argue that even libertarian John Stuart Mill might throw his weight behind Bloomberg's plan:

http://bigthink.com/praxis/the-big-soda-debate-jon-stewart-vs-john-stuart-mill

Steven Mazie of NY 6:51AM June 02, 2012

Bloomberg is a great example of the slippery slope and hypocrisy. Below is a letter I wrote to the NYTImes 2 weeks ago (that they never published):

Bloomberg’s Liberty

Mayor Bloomberg must have a keen sense of irony. During his commencement speech at the University of North Carolina on Sunday, your paper described how freedom served as his central theme (“In address, Bloomberg champions gay rights,” May 14, A18). Among other comments, he insisted that “If government can deny freedom to one, it can deny freedom to all.”

Is this the same mayor who has declared a war on smoking, salt, trans-fats, alcohol and other ‘vices,’ one bylaw at a time? Is this the same mayor who increased New York City’s “Stop and Frisk” program from 97,000 stops a year when he took office in 2002 to 685,724 in 2011 (according to your own editorial of the same day)?

I salute Bloomberg for supporting gay marriage rights. It just seems a bit surreal that this self-described champion of liberty would send his goon squads after people smoking in a park, looking forward to happy hour at the bar, trying to run a restaurant that doesn’t specialize in organic greens or just walking around town while being black or Hispanic.

David Romano of MO 6:46PM June 01, 2012

Discrimination of cups by allowing 1-2 liter bottles.

Fizzy of NY 5:40PM June 01, 2012

How about we subsidize barley and the beer industry so that 32 oz of beer will cost a dollar? Then after 5 years, we blame Americans for becoming a nation of drunkards? And then we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on liver transplant and curing alcoholism?

That's what is happening with subsidizing corn....(The real price of corn has fallen by 75% over the last 40 years and high fructose corn syrup has become the nutrition of America)

chris kay of CA 5:38PM June 01, 2012

If your idea of freedom is buying a large soda, you are not free.

If your idea of freedom is electing a mayor who is trying to limit the public burden of health costs by reducing obesity, you are free.

rlb of NY 5:28PM June 01, 2012

It is a step in the right direction. I totally agree that it is very less effective and does not eradicate the problem. This will raise an awareness in millions of people. I understand it is an inconvenience, it is a difficulty and may be some lost business. But a good small step in the right direction.

A complete ban is impossible. I am sure the author of this article will complain even more about a complete ban. Society may not care if some kids get obesity, diabetes, cancer because of these bad foods. Society will call it THEIR problem. When some one takes the right step, there are so many people to complain.

This is a good start for an awareness that can save our kids and will have an impact on our healthcare costs.

Naren Koka of AR 5:17PM June 01, 2012

Along these lines, here's how I plan to get healthier: http://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2012/06/01/how-obama-and-romney-will-make-me-healthier/

Art Carden of TN 5:11PM June 01, 2012

Typical liberal socialist insanity! Freedom will win.

Rp of NY 4:43PM June 01, 2012

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Soda Ban a Meaningless Gesture With Limited Effect

Of the many problems in New York City, sugary drink consumption is not the most pressing, nor is it any of the government's business

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Back to argument

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Soda Ban a Meaningless Gesture With Limited Effect

Of the many problems in New York City, sugary drink consumption is not the most pressing, nor is it any of the government's business

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