Puerto Rico is considering an extreme response to childhood obesity: a fat tax. Sen. Gilberto Rodríguez Valle has introduced a bill to fine parents of obese children as a form of neglect. The bill suggests that fines would be imposed when the obesity is viewed as a form of neglect though that can be a very difficult line to discern.
Sen. Jose Luis Dalmau defended the fine as “necessary for society” and said that “Here in ‘La Isla del Encanto’ there are no consequences, . . . The obese child is a health problem that can become a financial burden because the child can develop diabetes, heart ailments and other diseases.”
There is little disagreement over the crisis with obesity generally or the harmful effects of obesity. However, the bill would have education officials to identify obese children and confront parents. If there is no improvement in six months, the child would be referred to child-family services authorities as one involving abuse or mistreatment. After six month, the parents would be subject to up to $500 in fines that would increase after another six months to $800.
Child advocates and health professionals oppose the bill because of the underlying medical issues and genetic factors. However, the politicians want to convert this health and parental issue into a legal one.
I understand the motivation given the harmful effect on these children and the fact that some parents continue to supply high-fat diets to children, particularly from fast-food establishments. There can be no serious debate over officials raising the issue with parents and seeking to educate them on options or approaches. However, the threat of a fine seems unlikely to be the type of motivation that will make a difference. It will also hit lower income families more severely since obesity has been shown in higher percentages in lower income brackets. Finally, the line between familial habits and genetic dispositions is difficult for experts to discern. It will be even more difficult for educational or child welfare officials to discern.
What do you think?
DBQ – I agree that the EBT system needs to be reformed so it can be used for what the taxpayers agreed to – food, shelter/rent, clothing, etc. It was never intended to buy alcohol or be used in strip clubs. We want to take care of the poor, not be taken advantage of. And that might prevent EBT from being used on other things while the kids at home still go hungry.
Nick, you are right about the taste buds changing but I still believe it happens in stages, yes, menopause does add to the problem, I agree,,,,,, but lack of exercise adds more as well as not eating the right foods or preparing them correctly and you could add drinking plenty of water. All these and not eating junk food, cutting down the sweets are good ways to change the desire to eat more. People who are always hungry are generally not eating the right foods that tame that hunger and junk food, fatty foods and sweets, etc. only adds to the problem.
Should we tax anorexics and bulimics, too?
Karen S –
We certainly should fine them, they are wasting food.
Let’s be fair and tax all citizens for every self-destructive behavior, assuming the obesity is from simply overeating, and not from a psychological or metabolic reason.
That would mean that we will tax those in high stress jobs, those who don’t exercise, vegans (because it’s possible but quite difficult to be healthy on a vegan diet. You have to really know what you’re doing), those who eat junk food even if they’re not fat, smokers, drinkers, drug addicts, those in abusive relationships, compulsive liars, and those who have chronic inflammatory diseases from eating too much grain.
And Professor Turley is right – more poor are obese. So this tax will hit the poor the hardest.
Another approach to improving obesity is to stop subsidizing processed foods with corn subsidies and increase farmers markets accepting EBT. Host free cooking classes teaching how to cook quick, healthy meals instead of reaching for that box of instant food.
This is another well-intentioned Liberal policy that will go awry.
This is wrong on so many levels.
There are laws already against severe neglect, whether it’s from malnutrition or runaway obesity.
They shouldn’t encourage government officials to insert themselves between parent and child.
If they have an obesity problem, they should educate. Teach nutrition in schools (although it’s surprising how often generally accepted paradigms such as the food pyramid, are later proven wrong.)
What next, cork the cows to save the planet or tax the beanpoles for the air they breathe?…………. Taxing the fatties………. get real, what size will be considered small enough to be relieved of the tax burden? Looks like Puerto Rico and Obama are on the same page. Tax, Tax, Tax,………………… All they need to do is take away all the govt. perks and put everyone to work and there will be less money to spend on junk food. …… We grew up poor and not on the govt dole and I don’t remember having one fat kid in any of my classes for 12 years. NO JUNK FOOD! Education is the key to good health, not taxes.
If we want to fight obesity in the United States:
We should bring back a mandatory home economics course in high school. One where you learn some basic cooking skills, household maintenance and budgeting. Learn nutrition and HOW TO COOK.
Then eliminate the carte blanche EBT card program and go back to a predominantly commodity based food stamp program with a very small portion of food stamps to be used for perishable items.
Eliminate the ability to have unfettered access to junk food, sugary foods and empty calories as well as pre packaged foods. Instead hand out ACTUAL food. Meat, milk, eggs, bread, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables. Fresh vegetables. Potatoes, onions. Staples
If you are on “food stamps” make it mandatory to attend some classes that teach those things you should have already learned from your parents or in school
Educate and restrict access to crap food.
Our taste buds physically change as we age, changing what type of foods we like. Hormones and other factors change our taste buds over time. Menopause changes taste buds in women.
Nick – your menopause or their menopause changes our taste in women?
Isaac, Bananas, while certainly better than Twinkies, are down on the list of good fruit. High carbs and sugar. Berries, apples, grapefruit, peaches, and most others are better than bananas. But I understand what you’re saying and agree, ANY fruit choice is better than the junk food kids eat. When you’re serious about fighting diabetes, you learn the good and bad fruits. Bananas and watermelon are 2 of the worst.
Isaac, Aykroyd was one of so many funny hosers. When he did the sleazeball sales act he was @ his best. But, he did sell some healthy product. Remember the Bassomatic? “Yum, that’s great bass, honey.” How about when he was selling home alarms and he kidnapped a families kids. When Belushi was the straight man and Akyroyd the sleazeball, they were @ their best. But, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, just to name a few. I unabashedly love hosers! John Candy’s death bothered me more than Belushi’s. Candy was much more talented.
There are many more obese people with normal thyroid function than there are people with hypothyroidism induced obesity. But if you’re worried, just ask your doc to do a simple blood test called a TSH, T4, T3 and Free T4.
Wow – I just love a Mandate – the sound is so Manly. Can we have a Womandate too so I can feel more equal as far as taxes go? Fat is female problem in nature as the thyroid disease is a (women) problem
So – lets make this tax a Womandate? Cool okay guys? 😉
There is an addictive element to overeating as well as a genetic one. The brain responds to sugar and fat. A food rich in sugar AND fat really lights up the brain.
http://mic.com/articles/88015/what-happens-to-your-brain-on-sugar-explained-by-science
Aridog
The addiction issue is a small but important part of the diet problem. Parents who don’t raise their kids on fructose from the fruit but rather from the refined product, have problems later with their kids’ needs for sugar. If a kid is raised on bananas and other fruits and taught that Twinkies are poison then the kid grows up reaching for a piece of fruit and avoiding Twinkies, McDonalds, and the rest of the garbage. I like scotch and soda. I buy a bottle at $15 to $25 because it would be a waste to dilute a good single malt with soda water.
If you have an addiction that is a different problem, however, habits turn into addictions and habits cost money. Wouldn’t it be better to have the sugar habit be satisfied with cheaper fruits and more expensive crap? A parent on a budget would soon start handing their kids $.50 bananas rather than $2.00 Twinkies.
If the problem was addressed on several levels: financially, through education, and parental assistance programs, it couldn’t hurt.
‘course it is communism, right?
Paul
I had friends in Corsica, one who came from a fairly rural part of the island, hunted his own meat, etc. They would make a sausage from wild and domestic meats, each in big chunks smoked and cured differently and then packed together with next to no fat or lips and a##holes. In one slice was smoked, sweet, and other flavors. Readily available were sausages and salamis in local delis, not nearly as good but much better than the stuff you get in the super market, done in similar ways. A big old ‘horse hang’ from the local deli would last at least a week and there is nothing in the ‘hot dog’ world that even comes close. Along with being able to cook better than most restaurants and having gotten used to vastly better food, I don’t eat out much and have long ago lost my craving for a hot dog, kosher or not, (whatever kosher has to do with it). So, using myself, my wife, our son and a host of friends and acquaintances as examples I have come to believe that taste in food is divided into two areas, sugar, fats, and salts which deliver an immediate although perverse taste hit, and what one gets used to. America can get used to better, perhaps if it stopped identifying itself with crap. Tax the crap and subsidize the healthy stuff.
There was a sausage from North Africa made from goat and sheep meat called Merguez. Barbecued and laid on a fresh baguette with a little mint mustard, outside there is little to compare.
issac – over time our tastes change. Foods we could not tolerate as a child we can tolerate as an adult and vice versa. It is part of the great cycle of life. This happens in other areas of our life as well. 😉
I kind of like the idea of a fat tax. Since my country is headed towards more and more socialism, why should I pay for others health issues that were preventable. But, just like the gays, the first thing the obese need to do is to convince us all that it is not their fault. This campaign has already started for sure.
I’m inclined to think making something more expensive, by taxes or other means, is not necessarily a deterrent. In my smoking days the cost of cigarettes didn’t stop me. In my drinking days, I favored Cognac near the end of it and that is hardly inexpensive, especially the good stuff…work your way up from the $40 bottle to the $1700 bottle (Remy’s Louis XIII Black Pearl) and the addiction is the same. Only education and moderation, if possible, is the answer. For some of us only abstinence is the answer, and that doesn’t work via legislation. Show me a kid who prefers a fresh peach over some double cheeseburger and fries and I’ll show you a kid who was bribed….or raised in the wilderness. 🙂
Nick
There are a few things tied for first place. Up there is the matter of convenience which is directly the result of changes in family and social structure affected by the dominance of corporations and the weakening of the worker’s influence in American’s lives. Garbage food is a result of convenience and ignorance as well as price. Good food demands attention and a little time and more often than not costs a little more.
What goes into a hot dog is a lot cheaper than what goes into a tasty dish that is good vis a vis nutrition and calories. As Dan Aykroyd put it, lips and a##holes.
I like to grab a pizza, beer, whiskey, more beer, wine, more beer, and sometimes a gin and tonic, followed by more beer. I don’t drink enough for it to consume any great part of the fortune I don’t have. It wouldn’t matter to me much if all the stuff I drink doubled in price. That would amount to less than fifty bucks a month. If you are too poor, drink too much, or just average, doubling the price of beer, wine, and other booze would not have a negative effect on you. It would be a good thing. The taxes that could be obtained this way as well as doubling the price of other crap, could go directly into education, health (pay for your liver transplant), and other social issues to bring down the cost of health….
It worked with tobacco. Tobacco is nothing compared to booze and Twinkies.
Another thing to consider for all you conspiracy people out there; before the French Revolution the government under the monarchy made sure that table wine and tobacco was cheap. It kept the people’s minds off of their plight, whatever it was, under an autocratic government at the pleasure of some inbred dude and dudesse. Way in the back of most towns and cities in France there were and probably still are, ‘caves’ where people could bring empty wine bottles and get them filled up with the cheapest red wine available. They would sometimes empty the bottom of a huge cask into the street. The red wine running through the gutters, the rancid smell, ah, la Belle France, c’est un beau pays’.
issac – nothing tastes as good as a kosher hot dog on a summer afternoon. 😉
This is hateful, stupid and ignorant.
First, there are ranges of human sizes. We do not fine parents of children who are shorter or taller than the medium on the bell curve. Being fat is not the equivalent of being unhealthy any more than having anorexia is the equivalent of being healthy. Actually, there is a 15% death rate from anorexia. Isn’t it time we jailed parents of anorexic children?!!!
As DBQ said, we do not understand what is going on. What we do know is that children need nutritious food. The govt. could step in to provide that. They could, as Justice Holmes points out, fine corporations for putting nasty chemicals, gmo, and empty calories in their phood products. It would be more helpful.
Until then, here is a website for people who hate that they are fat or for people who despise fat children/adults:
http://www.haescommunity.org/