[morrow]

I wonder if there is some political philosophy to describe my thoughts on this - but I never understood why government just didn't set up taxes on things it didn't like, and directly allocate the revenues from those taxes to the opposite side of whatever stance it took (versus going towards general expenses).

For example with this, tax the happy meal and other fatty kids foods, allocate revenues earned from that tax directly to childhood obesity prevention campaigns. McDonald's still makes money, kids still can get happy meals, and childhood obesity is reduced through funding effective programs.

[protomyth]

They tried this with the tobacco taxes / settlements and just decided to spend it any way they wanted.

[kalmi10]

In Hungary they are taxing too fatty, too sweet and too salty foods. Oh.. and drinks with high coffeine content.

http://www.chew.hu/welcome_to_the_maybe_healthy_a.html

Some foods' salty version costing twice as much as the non-salty version (for example peanuts).

I can't say we like it...