Preview

Effectiveness of Fat Tax

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1173 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effectiveness of Fat Tax
Effectiveness of ‘fat tax:
The effectiveness of the fat tax
Elasticity: when consumer is changing pattern of buying according to the change in price, eg. When its espcial they tend to buy more and if the price rises they don’t want a lot and if they don’t need they don’t even buy it.
Inelasticity: when consumers buy products that they need the most and even if the price rise they buy it. Basic needs products, and if the prise is low they don’t buy more than what they need.

The link between the consumption of high-fat foods and obesity is well established. Mounting concern about the increasing incidence of obesity in many countries has sparked debate about the merit of an explicit ‘fat tax’, aimed at either taxing foods according to their fat content or, more practically, taxing certain foods with a high fat content.
Discuss the implications and effectiveness of a fat tax for reducing the consumption of high-fat foods?

Taxing food according to their fat content Taxing foods according to their fat content would be the most effective way of implementing a fat tax Consequence * To obese individuals, unhealthy foods and beverages such as pies and coke may be considered a necessity in their diet but to healthy individual’s pies and coke may be something which is consumed once in a while, therefore, if foods are taxed to their fat content, both obese and healthy individuals will be affected financially. * Effectiveness * Although obese individuals are less responsive to changes in price than normal sized individuals, when tax is incurred with food according to their fat content, as shown in Figure 1, it would make a bigger impact because price and the quantity demanded would both increase but since every food would be taxed, individuals would purchase less as they would have to be spending more on fewer goods. * Taxing certain food that contain high fat content There are more costs to benefits Consequence Such as

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Evaluate the case for the imposition of a saturated fat tax in the United Kingdom. (30 Marks)…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    EGT1 Task 2

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When the change in price percent is less than the change in demand percent, this is referred to as inelasticity. For this example, let’s say we have a 6% reduction in the price of bread but it only increases the demand by 3%.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In our modern world, humans are starting to dying more from obesity related deaths compared to starvation. This has created pressure on governments to take action to prevent this problem to escalate into a greater issue.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Week 1 Knowledge Check

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Inelastic goods are necessities that consumers continue to purchase even when the price increases. This increases the revenue, as more is paid for each good. The percentage change in price increases faster than the change in quantity, which may remain constant. When more is paid for a good or a service, revenue increases.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to, Eric, et al (2009) compare to people in their physical appearance whether overweight or normal weight. They also explain obese persons have medical spending that was $ 1,429 higher than spending for average weight people in 2006. Moreover, they show the differences between these two kinds of people because fat people need many medical examinations unlike normal weight people, therefore, they have to pay more to the hospitals or to health care companies. Furthermore, the authors estimate the medical disbursal to obesity between people’s spending. In 2006, normal weight persons spent $ 1,429 billion and overweight people spent $41.5 billion. In 1998, average weight people spent $1,145 billion and fat persons spent $36.5 billion. The authors blame for the negative outcomes to diseases as a result of the increase of medical care spending for obesity specially. It means that, people spend a lot of money in order to get medical care and medicine. People who are normal weight do not pay a lot of money as much as the overweight people cost. The medical health care charges people depending on their weight, whether additional cost or reduced price. The cost of remedy is relying on people’s weightiness and their…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The fat tax is a fascinating and controversial idea where unhealthy foods and beverages would be subject to higher taxes to deter people from consuming them. Although, I can see where there might be merit to the idea, ultimately more people would suffer. This concept was discussed in the reading, “Let Them Drink Water!” by Daniel Engber. It suggested an interesting approach toward remedying one of the biggest problems we have in the United States, our own body weight.…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the “Fat Tax” by David Leonhardt, he believes that obesity is a major cause of health problems for the American people. Leonhardt discusses with Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove, the chief executive at Cleveland Clinic, who started an initiative to stop hiring smokers. Cosgrove also stated “if there weren’t legal issues, he would not only stop hiring smokers. He would also stop hiring obese people” (636). Cosgrove believes that a person should be held accountable for their actions and choices when it comes to their weight, which would also include charging higher health premiums to people with a certain body mass. While Leonhardt does see diet as part of the problem, he also realizes the environment and the cost of food as a contributing factor. To…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When there is an increase in demand for a product or service and the price for the product or service goes down the product or service is considered elastic. An example is prescription medications. When a medication first becomes available to health care providers to prescribe to consumers the cost is significantly higher to the consumer in his or her co-pay and to the covering insurance company. As that medication is increasingly prescribed, the cost may come down because the supply and demand is more affordable for the pharmaceutical companies. Inelasticity is the opposite of elasticity and equal unresponsiveness. As in the example above, but in reverse action, a medication may be expensive to manufacture and may only help a small-targeted group of patients. As a result, the cost of the medication does not come down because there is not enough use to increase the supply and demand to help reduce the cost of manufacturing the…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Sacks, G., Veerman, J. L., Moodie, M. and Swinburn, B. (2011) ‘Traffic-light’ nutrition labelling and ‘junk-food’ tax: a modelled comparison of cost-effectiveness for obesity prevention. International Journal of Obesity, 35 (7) July, pp. 1001–1009.…

    • 3179 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There are many ideas to how to help the obesity problem, one being a tax on junk food; however, should the men and women buying the junk food be taxed or the producers of the junk food? The article “Tax the Producers of Junk Food, Not the Consumers” by…

    • 1833 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Curing of an Epidemic

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Over the last few generations, obesity has become more common than it has ever been. Spurlock states in Girth of a Nation that “[t]he obesity epidemic is truly nationwide, cutting across class, race, ethnicity and gender” (25). In the past the only group who was obese was the wealthy, due to the fact that the lower classes did not have enough money to buy food enough to make them obese. Nowadays, a lot of food items have been made cheap for everyone, but this food is not necessarily nutritious. Spurlock points out that the rise in obesity appears to coincide with the rise of fast food (31). Fast food gives everyone a chance to get a plethora of non-nutritious food “fast, cheap, and easy.” In addition to getting the food cheap, one can choose to “super-size” the meal making it twice as harmful to the body.…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Journalist Robert Pearlberg quotes, “In 2010, Denmark increased by 25 percent its excise tax on chocolate, ice cream, sugary drinks and confectionary products… and timing of ads for foods high in fat, salt or sugar (par. 4). With this intention, obesity can prevented for future generations. Moreover, Pearlberg quotes, “The groups in the United States most likely to become obese are racial minorities… least able to access quality medical care (par. 9). However, this solution has an obstacle. Americans have relied on fast food for so long that imposing taxes on unhealthy, or sugary foods is unreliable for them. The poorer families rely on cheap fast-food to feed their families, and Pearlberg quotes that “Regulating food ads is also more difficult in the United States because our courts treat such ads as “commercial speech” constitutionally protected under the First Amendment (par. 6). Stopping obesity will take longer because of their objections on placing soda taxes, or the food commercials being protected by the First Amendment because it is treated as “commercial…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Soda Pop

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages

    More and more young people are experiencing hypertension and childhood obesity, and because of which are seemingly becoming more prone to various diseases (Should Government Tax Sugary Drinks?). Many take a stand on the issue, as New York for example no longer allows the use of trans fats in their restaurants. Still the cost of unhealthy food has remained nearly the same, while the cost of a high yield diet has soared beyond that of the rate of inflation (Should Government Tax Sugary Drinks?). The idea has been presented that the government place a tax on unhealthy food, such as America’s favorite – soda pop! Various valid points have been made in relation to how this “sin” tax could help to benefit our financial deficit and better influence the people (A Tax That Invests in Our Health). Others object, saying that the tax is a form of discrimination, separating us about our assumed character and wellbeing (Does This Tax Make Me Look Fat?). Though the answer seems so clear to some at first how to go about imposing such taxes, it is important that the complexity of the situation is recognized to see if the tax would be effective enough to be worthwhile.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    First, government should add taxes to the junk food because it would help discourage peoples’ consumption of unhealthy food and to reduce the number of obese people in the country. Many people would rather eat junk food because it is convenient, saves time, and it is cheaper than healthy food. By adding taxes on junk food, we can encourage people to eat healthy food because they will both cost the same price. For instance, every time that someone wants to eat junk food, that person will probably think about the cost and decide to prepare a delicious and healthy homemade food. Furthermore, there is evidence that taxes on cigarettes reduce the cigarette consumption. In addition, government must add taxes on junk food so that it would make people to make better decisions about their food choices and the obesity would decrease.…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sugary Drinks In America

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The government needs to make regulations for the health safety of obese Americans by limiting super-sized sugary drinks in eateries. “Regulations make it easier for people to eat healthfully without having to think about it. They make the default choice the healthy choice” (“Food Politics”). Fast food industries biggest customers are children, they advertise unhealthy food by cartoons commercials on T.V. and they put toys inside their kid meals to get kids to pester their parents to buy it for them along with the buy of an unhealthy meal. default Some people will so become aware that the default choice is not as desirable, instead one might buy foods with trans fats, that are more desirable. Trans fat in foods are extremely important in a business to create a specific taste and texture in many foods that consumers find desirable, and without a desirable texture and taste to appeal to customers, businesses will lose customers and money. Government regulations are going to save more lives than they kill by increasing the health of today's…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics