[manuelabeledo]

> This is the slipperiest of slopes.

It really isn't.

Drinking and eating crap is a choice. One may as well be addicted to it, but addiction may be treatable.

You are comparing a biological drive like sex and reproduction, with a desire for Coke, cigarettes, and fatty beef.

Also, societies will survive without sugary drinks. Without sex and children? I doubt it.

[lockhouse]

The government dictating that I can only eat in a healthy manner at all times is one of the most dystopian things I can imagine. Many evils have been unleashed upon society with the justification that it is for the greater good.

[nickd2001]

What about if the government made it illegal for food producers to use the worst offenders e:g adding high fructose corn syrup to food, giving cows growth hormones, spraying glyphosphate? So the consumer's freedom would be un-curtailed, but businesses have to abide by certain ethics. Does that make things work for you, or still no good? :). (I mean , maybe you should still be allowed to buy a bottle of corn syrup and add it yourself if you really really want to.. although perhaps parents shouldn't be allowed to feed their kids that).

[mirror_neuron]

You are expanding the scope of the original suggestion to make it seem more extreme. Taxing activities that damage society as a whole (and funneling that money towards mitigating that damage) seems to me like a good solution.