Sugar tax on soft drinks helps beverage companies!
This past Thursday, Philadelphia city Council, under the prodding of its mayor James Kenney, imposed a 1.5 sent tax per ounce of "sugary" soft drinks. The idea is to prevent obesity. Of course, this will prove to be totally useless for several reasons. First, even though the beverage industry is fighting these taxes, the truth is no one could be happier than the beverage industry. It is much more expensive to make a soft drink with sugar or high fructose corn syrup than with NutraSweet or any other varieties of artificial sweeteners. Even though study after study has shown that people who drink "diet" drinks do not lose any weight and fact may have a tendency to gain weight, the beverage industry pushes diet soda to make more profit. Now, Philadelphia, like some other big cities, has decided to play right into the hands of the beverage industry. More people will choose to save the tax (on a 20 ounce soda it is $.30) and start to drink diet sodas. The beverage in...