[bronson]

Sometimes the government needs to step in. (in no particular order:) lead paint, DDT, opioids, microbeads, antibacterial soaps, ...

Sometimes the government gets it wrong, of course: prohibition, pot, ...

I don't know where sugary drinks fall on this scale, but they're definitely on it.

[norea-armozel]

>Sometimes the government needs to step in. (in no particular order:)

Let's see what you got here because I think you're being naive.

>lead paint

That causes harm to everyone both directly (health risks) and indirectly (disposal costs). So the ban on lead paint was a benefit for us all.

>DDT

Ditto.

>opioids

Nope, they're regulated. Morphine is a form of them.

>microbeads

This is the same as the DDT and lead paint items. Common risk but indirectly through how they harm fish stock which are part of the food web that makes the nitrogen cycle possible.

>antibacterial soaps

Yet again, indirect harm to all.

I've yet to discern a pattern in your argument that shows where sugary sodas are bad. Obesity sucks, I'm a big fat blob here so I know the damage it does personally (bad back and probably going to get heart disease at this rate). What you should notice that health issues like this are covered under insurance and sodas can be hit with a sin tax to cover additional costs. Trying to go out of our way to ban stuff like this is misplaced as the individual consumer won't ever be able to cover the cost. Producers of such goods can but since our tax code is a mess it's a miracle we get any taxes from them. So if you want to really hit who is doing harm it would be the producers of such goods. From sodas to cars every good comes with a part of it's risks (that harms) socialized but it's profits privatized. That means we should tax firms to cover those negative externalities and not individuals who consume them.

[vvvveeeeuuuu]

Banning of DDT has led to literally millions of deaths due to malaria. Those who advocated for it and still do today are genocidal monsters.

So that one should probably be under your "gets it wrong" category.

[dalke]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/DDT#DDT_bans_and_mass_murder

> Horrifically stupid wingnuts and experts for hire will sometimes imply that a supposed worldwide ban on DDT has killed millions of people by giving them malaria or some other mosquito-borne disease, and that Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was responsible for the alleged ban. The myth seems to have originated from the Competitive Enterprise Institute and from libertarian Roger Bate (and is promoted by his organization Africa Fighting Malaria).

> Carson devoted some of her book into weighing the pros and cons of DDT use,[4] but her findings did not lead to a global ban. DDT got banned in dozens of countries, but there was (and still is) no global ban on DDT; only agricultural use is almost globally banned. Places with deadly mosquito-borne illnesses still use DDT, and in some places excessive use has led to the development of DDT-resistant mosquitoes.[5][6] In fact, the drastic reduction of DDT use in agriculture delayed the onset of resistance in mosquitoes.

> Not only is DDT still approved by the WHO for use against malaria (in indoor residual spraying,[wp] which is the spraying of walls of a home so a mosquito landing after it bites should get a fatal dose), but the Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty (POPs) has a special clause for DDT.[7] Any nation may endorse the treaty calling for an end to DDT; but any nation may also use DDT at any time, for severe health reasons, by essentially writing a letter to WHO saying, "We have a health problem we think DDT may be useful to combat, so we're going to use DDT."[8]

Or from https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2014/05/30/yes-malaria-is-s... :

> 4. DDT was banned ONLY for agriculture use in the U.S. It was banned in a few European nations. [Addition, December 30, 2014: In fact, the U.S. action against DDT by EPA specifically called for DDT use in any fight against a vector borne disease, like malaria.]

> 5. DDT has never been banned in Africa or Asia.

Or from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Convention_on_Persis... :

> [The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants] specifically permits the public health use of DDT for the control of mosquitoes (the malaria vector).