Obesity Became a Threat to the US National Security - Term Paper Example

Argumentation-Persuasion Essay - Obesity and Tax on Soda and Candy in US Obesity and Tax on Soda and Candy in US Obesity is something that has now become a grave issue but still people are not aware of the fact that it is spreading like a wildfire. People who are being victimized are now getting greater in number than the people who are under-nourished, especially when it comes to U.S. Excessive intake of sugar increases the number of calories being consumed. It is the reason why multiple diseases with metabolic syndrome results due to sugary diets. $190 billion of annual costs are incurred due to obesity in U.S and its government has been spending a great proportion of their money, around $150 billion dollars on resources being consumed in the healthcare department to treat morbidities which pop up due to metabolic syndrome. In U.S, obesity is now considered to be a ‘threat to national security’ after an observation was made that many of the military men were rejected to become part of the army due to obesity. This is affecting the country on national level and realizing the critical importance of the issue, the U.S government has decided to take a serious step to combat with the issue. The government is now considering implying penny per-ounce soda tax which will be the result of an increase in the price levels of a single can i.e. of 2 cents. Around 58% of the consumed soda contains sugar and a sufficient amount of 216 liters per year is consumed by every U.S citizen (Lustig, ‎ et al 2012). This shows that the people living in U.S have made soda a part of their daily food consumption which means soda will be price inelastic, demand of the soda will be less responsive to the change in price. So here a question can be raised: ‘Is the price change will affect the demand of soda and in all lead to a decrease in soda consumption?’ Well the answer to this question is: No, because people will continue to demand for soda and such a small increase in prices will not stop this massive intake of sugars leading to few changes in obesity. This means that this will be less beneficial and near to useless. This is also proved in a study and it is clearly stated that a considerable change will begin to appear only when there will be a double price increase. In many places like San Francisco etc. milk is more expensive than soda drinks. The level of consumption has been proliferated, continuing the problem of obesity. Besides Soda, candies also have led to some excessive consumption of sugars in US. Many schools are trying to curb this issue by stop vending candies in the school premises and instead of them, they provide juices and drinks. The people widely don’t realize the fact that sugar consumption remains there. So what is the use of doing this to school children when benefits will not be gained? When people are stopped from consuming soda and candies, they look for other food items which cover up the lost calories and this results in ‘substitution effect’ so, by far taxation on U.S has not been much beneficial. The popularity of taxation have observed a decline after the study was undertaken in which it was found out that without the taxes the soda consumption in U.S declined to 16 percent Randell‎, 2012). In previous undertaken studies, especially the ones in United States, it has been found that the popularity of taxation on sugary products like sodas, candies and alcohol can only experience a rise if combined with a favorable policy. This has been proved to a beneficial way to promote the prevention of sodas in New York, as it was found that when the new Yorkers were addressed that these taxes will result in increased revenues for the country especially in the health care department, from 66%, the percentage fell to 48% who supported the taxation on soda drinks. U.S government should come up with some clever, strategic favorable policies which can help to compel the people to support taxation policies; only then the problem of obesity can be resolved to some extent. Soda and candy tax schemes have been coming along since many years in United States. And the recent updates report us that these tax schemes have been imposed in Washington DC and Mississippi especially. Imposition of taxes has showed more benefits towards revenue collection for the government rather than treating the problem of obesity because obese people creates a negative externality because they start to get sick more often. So, it is better to tax obesity directly rather than imposing taxes on the products which are the causes of it. This will surely come up with greater benefits as obese people will consider this without any doubt (DrenkaFox, 2012). In the past, in 2006, a step was taken by William J.Clinton Foundation in which they replaced sugary soda drinks or you can say ‘liquefied candies’ with water, low calorie beverages and diet drinks and this really cut the sugar consumption among the students. So, this is a clever step in which sugary products are not replaced with the goods have the same content of sugar but with the ones having less sugar. This step was proved to be really beneficial to treat the problem of obesity among the school going students in United States (Drenkard‎, 2011). The increasing popularity of Coke, the most renowned soda drink of all times, among the teenagers in United States has added to this problem, reason being Coke’s persuading and catching advertisements. School administrations should stop bringing such type of soda drinks rather than holding awareness programs among their students, because only then they can be stopped to some extent. According to my point of view, the problem of obesity cannot be cured with the help of government’s pricing policies and taxing on sugary products like soda and candies but this can only be eradicated with one thing: awareness among sensible and adult U.S citizens so that they can make clever decisions regarding their diet and health. They don’t realize that obesity is something which can come in genes, resulting in their descendants to get victimized to such serious problem. I hope people know what is right and what is wrong for them, their life is surely in their hands! References Fox, M. (2012). Soda tax could save 26,000 lives, study projects. National Journal, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/915206972?accountid=13931 Randell, P. R. (2012). NYC big-soda bans just a start: Diabetes docs? Specialists see room for restrictions on other foods as governments begin to embrace junk food taxes. The Times - Transcript, 2 Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1021787422?accountid=13931 Lustig, R. H., Schmidt, L. A., & Brindis, C. D. (2012). Its whats BAD for you; excess sugar consumption kills millions of people every year. So why not regulate the substance, as we do with alcohol and tobacco? National Post, 14. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1016645834?accountid=13931 Drenkard, S. (2011). Overreaching on obesity: Governments consider new taxes on soda and candy. Special Report - Tax Foundation,14. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/906481457?accountid=13931 Read More