[JimiofEden]

I personally remember when Soda taxes were being proposed in Philadelphia. I did and do see soda as a luxury, so it sounded reasonable enough to me compared to alternatives

A lot of otherwise reasonable people that I had known at the time told me that I shouldn't be racist by voicing my support for these policies

I asked them to explain, but they would not, (do your own research, etc.) so I never really got a hold of their logic since the research that I pulled up always seemed so tenuous at best. I don't really recall if the taxes went through or not

This sort of shines a light on all of it though. Shows how susceptible we all are to this kind of manipulation =\

[idunno246]

they went through, its like $3-4 for a 2 liter. even diet so its not even about sugar, though diet soda isnt really much better. and i think the latest study is less than half the money went where it was supposed to.

at the least, tax at sales tends to be regressive, affecting poor people more than not poor, which maybe you could claim is racist. but pa constitution doesnt allow anything but flat taxes, so unfortunately theres basically no progressive taxing here. sin taxes in general i find somewhat troubling, sure its a luxury but why is this luxury deserve more tax than that.

[WalterBright]

Washington State, to its credit, does not have sales tax on food.

[frosted-flakes]

Do any US states charge sales tax on (non-restaurant) food? Canada certainly doesn't, and I would be surprised if any European states do either.

[dgoldstein0]

It depends on the food item. Ready to eat things like premade sandwiches or frozen food may have some taxes. Raw ingredients - produce, meat, eggs, bread, rice, oils, milk, cheese, etc- tend not to.

[dalkvist]

Some EU countries do, in Sweden food stuffs are halv vat compared to the norm (12 vs 25)