Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by xboxnolifes 1621 days ago
A tax on sugar's job is to reduce sugar sales. So it's the right metric to see if the tax itself is doing what it's supposed to do. What you seem to be arguing is on a metric of if the tax should have been implemented in the first place.

i.e. If the actual goal was reducing weight, then the obvious thought is all weight increasers should be taxed, not just sugar.

1 comments

The proponents of the law claimed they were doing it to fight obesity, to reduce weight. But considering that a per ounce metric is probably the wrong thing, and they didn't tax the worst drink, the milkshake, they didn't really do this to attack obesity.