A research study has a plan to deal with the obesity of a population like Australia: tax them for junk food and reduce the cost for healthy food.
Tax people to change, because that has worked out so well for humanity! Just coerce people with punitive measures to get them to change their individual behavior, right?
Sourced from Wikipedia
Don't truly educate people to learn how to think and understand right from wrong, both in a moral understanding and in terms of what is right and wrong for optimal health. Instead, just coerce them into changing through extrinsic punishment, which they will maybe do if they want to not pay extra for things through taxes. *Bonus, make other things cheaper, and that will get them to think with their money rather than their health.
People still smoke cigarettes despite the cost of cigarettes going up. Some might be incentivized to stop, but most stop because they know it's bad for them, not because it costs more to still do it. The extra cost is an additional factor that weighs in on the overall balance sheet, but not what intrinsically determines the change.
Other countries are implementing taxes on unhealthy foods and drinks. They are all taxing people in an attempt to deal with the burden of dietary related diseases. Current countries like France, Mexico, Norway and some cities in the United States are already taxing sugary drinks, and Hungary as a "chips tax". But these single measures only have modest effects. In Mexico, soft drink consumption only fell by 12 mL per person which is almost nothing.
A new study funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (Grant number 1036771), was published on Feb. 14th to simulate the effect of taxes on saturated fat, salt and sugar sweetened foods, while at the same time employing a subsidy on fruits and vegetables, to determine how this affected dietary-related diseases and health care costs. This two-pronged approach to getting people healthier works in the simulated model.
This study wants to target more unhealthy foods and introduce a carrot-and-stick approach. Taxing foods high in sugar, salt or saturated fat, while providing subsidies to buy fruits and vegetables cheaper, will prevent overall household food bills from increasing which promotes a greater chance that people will be able to afford eating better while having the bad foods cost more. If they only increase the cost of bad foods which are cheaper, it still leaves the good food at the price it always was which is a problem in terms of the budget a family may have.
The study concludes that almost 500,000 extra years of healthy life would be added to the population of 23 million Australians, with a saving of $3 billion in health care costs over the current lifetimes of existing Australians. 500,000 extra years for 23 million people only comes down to 0.02 extra years per person, which only equates to one week. Given that most people are driven by their lower consciousness desire to ingratiate their senses, such as their taste buds, having one extra week to live isn't much of a motivator.
Taxes do change people's behavior. Carrots to reward, and stick to punish, have "worked" for a long time. But where does it get us? To real lasting change from within? No.
As I have mentioned in my article Shooting Ourselves in the Foot by Leading with a Carrot, trying to get people to do things by manipulating them with extrinsic incentives (such as rewards or punishment), doesn't actually deal with the underlying intrinsic motivation that has people do or not do something in the first place. The inner motivation needs to be changed for people to want to do something differently. The alternative of extrinsic manipulation doesn't deal with the underlying inner psychological reasons for not changing themselves.
A survey of Australians indicated that the majority are in favor of taxing junk food as long as the tax money is spent dealing with childhood obesity, as 1/4 of Australian children are now overweight or obese. Other methods include restricted marketing that targets children, better labeling for unhealthy foods, or getting food manufacturers to use less of the bad ingredients.
The Australian government doesn't have plans to tax or subsidize certain foods. Instead they are going to encourage the food industry to have less sugar, salt and saturated fat, while having more whole grains and vegetables.
I changed my eating and other habits through knowledge and willpower of recognizing the need to change for the better. I would not have been able to change if I lacked the knowledge of the underlying root causal factor for WHY I needed to change.
How are people really going to change themselves, when they lack the knowledge to empower and motivate them to change? We keep being ignorant of self-knowledge, we don't know who we really are as a psyche, and how to overcome our limitations. Yet, magically, the same old routine of external control is going to change us?
People were forced to abandon slavery or face severe consequences, but they didn't want to do it because it was right. This resulted in the master-slave mindset continuing, even to this day, because we have never been truly educating people on psychology, philosophy and morality in order to empower people into doing what is right for themselves, or others. So the same false ideas and beliefs get perpetuated from generation to generation, taking a long time to root out.
Things don't really change when we don't really change. Change starts from the inside.
References:
- Junk food tax and veg subsidies could add 500,000 years of life
- Taxes and Subsidies for Improving Diet and Population Health in Australia: A Cost-Effectiveness Modelling Study, Linda J. Cobiac, King Tam, Lennert Veerman, Tony Blakely, PLOS, February 14, 2017, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002232
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2017-02-17, 7:25pm
Another excellent post... and yes, I agree that the desire for change ideally comes from our own internal moral compass. That said, in a world of sheeple (many of whom are guided by a fear/reward system) it may be more functionally viable to make healthy more attractive to the pocketbook and unhealthy less attractive. It's a bit like psychiatry... pharmaceuticals are no panacea to solve mental illness, but they can center and ground patients to the point where they are temporarily conscious enough to be able to even look at the underlying problems in need of addressing.
That's what truth is for. One root of why we are where we are, and the problems we have, is due to a lack of care for truth (apathy, which allows ignorance to persist). Thanks for the feedback.
Your post makes all the sense in the world to a non-psychopath BUT the problem is the world is literally run by psychopaths who are literally trying to poison us through food, vaccines, and endless other toxins. Why would they do that? Well aside from their fractional banking ponzi scheme nothing rakes in more cash for the satanic elites than big pharma- they are highly incentivized to make you and keep you sick. And of course they love to inhibit population growth so why not get rich in the process of killing us? If you think my assertion is absurd then please do explain to me why the system seems so resistant to labeling foods as 'GMO' and also letting us know the origins of our food which the system also works to keep hidden AND of course the legislators seem to do exactly what their psychopathic overlords wish them to to in regards to concealing the truth about food and their big pharma poisons.
I don't trust bureaucrats to know what I should eat, where I should be "allowed" to travel, what I may buy, which health insurance program (if any) I get, or anything else. Gaining and retaining power are their main goals, not my well-being.
This pre-supposes folks have equal access to healthy foods. Evidently, these bozos have never heard of a food desert. Morons.
Heh, the government that condemns raw milk and pimps vaccines is going to tax for what they deem junk? I hope they don't cut my allowance.
I know we should change from within and think for ourselves about what's healthy for us and what's not. However, what's wrong with cheaper healthy food and more expensive bad food? This sounds like a win-win to me. Healthy eating people will have to pay less and others will get to think twice, before continueing their unhealthy habbits.
There's also the fact that not everyone has the money to spend on a healthy diet, because this healthy diet can get pretty expensive, as opposed to an unhealthy one. Sure, water from the tap is much cheaper than all the soda being consumed, but overall, healthier food seems to be more expensive. A bag of chips is cheaper than having an equal amount of tomatoes, cucumbers or bell peppers to snack on. Want to snack on some unsalted nuts? You get to pay thrice (or more) as much.
A valid point, certainly in some situations. The locally sourced organic veggies at my local food co-op are often double (or more) the price of "regular" veggies at the supermarket. Leaving the dilemma for more than a few of whether you "starve healthily" or "eat unhealthily."
Steemit, and indeed all cryptocurrencies, are built upon Libertarian principles. I'm afraid your position is going to be a hard sell in such a venue.
Your position is of not even reading the post, and commenting ignorantly. Bravo.
What position?
This is crazy
this is idiotic, coercion isn't the answer. This will only make things even more difficult for those financially struggling.
Well, thank you very much for that glowing review :) I appreciate the appreciation. I have a deep deep care for truth and morality which drives me :) Thanks again ;)
coercion isn't liberty
I could tell from your comment earlier, and the upvote on others comments, that you did't actually read the post you commented on like the comment you upvoted, LOL. Hilarious.