Food Tax

[The Red Next Door]

What is your opinion on food taxes,

[mykittyhasaboner]

What about "food taxes".....?

My opinion of paying taxes in a market economy is pretty negative.

[GreenCommunism]

do you mean taxes on specific food? like pizza since it is unhealthy? i wouldn't be so opposed to the idea if healthcare was public, but then again i don't want the tax to be punitive but rather cover some costs.

[The Red Next Door]

do you mean taxes on specific food? like pizza since it is unhealthy? i wouldn't be so opposed to the idea if healthcare was public, but then again i don't want the tax to be punitive but rather cover some costs.

Yeah, on healthy food but people claim that unlike some people, they don't have time to cook, so they need a fast meal.

[Blake's Baby]

In Britain we have Value Added Tax on hot food bought from fast-food outlets. They charge you 15p more for a pie that they microwave for 30 seconds. The idea is that it has been processed - so, has had 'value added' - beyond the normal pie.

When it was introduced in the 1980s, there was a lot of fuss. Poor people are more likely to have to rely on fast food due to their longer working hours (maybe they haven't got time to cook), lack of transportation options (so if they meet their kids from school they can't just jump in a car and go home for tea, so maybe they call in at a fast food-shop on the way home, rather than driving to the out-of-town shopping-centre for fresh food), and fewer options to buy quality fresh food (partly to do with the problems already mentioned, partly just to do with price).

The government didn't give a shit that it was a 'tax on the poor'. Why would they? It was another little revenue stream for them, penalising people who were unlikely to vote for them anyway. It wasn't repealed when the Labour Government came to power; and the new Liberal-Conservative government is the successor to the Conservative government that introduced it.

In short, there will always be taxes as long as we have governments and money. I don't even think we should have to pay for food let alone be taxed on top. I'm probably the wrong person to be asking, in other words.

[Luisrah]

In short, there will always be taxes as long as we have governments and money. I don't even think we should have to pay for food let alone be taxed on top. I'm probably the wrong person to be asking, in other words.

With so much technology and ability to produce, and such an advance of civilization, free food should have come a long time ago.

[Raúl Duke]

I don't like this idea of a special food tax (already on top of the sales tax I pay at the supermarket register).

[Die Neue Zeit]

"Indirect taxation destroys all tendency to self-government." (Karl Marx) (http://www.revleft.com/vb/abolition-indirect-and-t117359/index.html)

[Veg_Athei_Socialist]

With so much technology and ability to produce, and such an advance of civilization, free food should have come a long time ago.

Exactly. Basic food should be free for all. It is a right of the people no matter how poor or how rich, you should be able to get food no matter what. Nobody deserves to go hungry.