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Games Tax To Fund Obesity Prevention?
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to an AP/Yahoo story discussing a New York State proposal to tax videogames, and use the money to prevent obesity. According to the article, "..the 1 percent tax hike proposed by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz would apply to junk food, video games and television commercials, which Ortiz blames on New York's growing obesity problem. Ortiz, a Democrat, did not rule out proposing tax increases on other things that he believes contribute to obesity." Fortunately, the proposal is believed to have a "slim chance" of passing into law.
Games do not make one fat
Make no sence these yoda speakers do
Has anyone got any example of a tax where the money was supposed to have a predefined definition and it actually went there, rather than just into the general pool to be spent on junkets and million dollar superannuation?
"slim chance"
"Slim"? Isn't that what they're hoping for?
Of course, that wouldn't ever fly. Once a program is created, it can never be terminated lest someone get mad that their pet project or special entitlement evaporate. Let's just waste more money since we can always rob the people^W^W^Wraise taxes^Wour income by force^W^Wlater.
Don't leave your mind so open that your brain falls out. Don't close it so much that you cut off the blood.
There's no question in my mind that the biggest cause of sedentary lifestyles in this country is the good old idiot box. And I'm not talking about the people who build televisions because RCA, Toshiba, Zenith, et. al. couldn't care less whether you ever turned on your TV after you purchase it, but rather commercial televison networks which make billions of dollars every year trying as hard as they can to get as many people as possible to watch as much of their programming as possible, preferably while eating a McDonald's hamburger accompanied by a bag of Nacho Cheesier Doritos and a Coke (or a Budweiser - they're not THAT picky).
How about a tax on foods of which more than 50% of the caloric content is provided by carbohydrates and sugars?
But then, the grain growers have actual lobbyists even at the state level, whereas video game producers couldn't find a domed, white building with hacked in-game radar and a 17" monitor.
If you don't pretend to be anyone, are you?
Just imagine how much time it takes to get an FP! That would certainly contribute to obesity.
Promote DDR.
>television commercials, which Ortiz blames on New York's growing obesity problem
It doesn't say "blames for", it says "blames on".
That's interesting. Isn't it scary to think that New York's obesity problem is causing television commercials?
Causing junk food and video games is one thing, but television commercials? That's an incentive for a diet.
Video games cause obesity, so we'll tax them? Give me a break. I can think of a few other things have a much more direct effect on a persons body weight. Like, I dunno, food for example? I think it could be proven that the more food you eat, the more likely you are to be obese. Especially fast food.. why not tax that?
Believe it or not, something similar has recently been proposed in the UK. The BBC has recently reported that it is proposed that fatty foods should be taxed in the UK.
I was wondering recently if taxing things to artificially increase the price actually discourages people from wanting them. Cigarettes for example - I don't smoke and I dont know about the US but in the UK they are expensive however does making something more difficult to get hold of decrease the desire to aquire it or increase it? If cigarettes were free, would kids start to smoke? I believe that increasing the price has the reverse effect - kids want it more; the worst part - how do they get the money? Some will turn to petty crime. People do not stop wanting things because they are expensive, however only honest people will accept they can't afford things and leave it at that.
Web site
Assemblyman Felix Ortiz
404 55th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11220
Advice from a skinny person to fat people:
The solution to overcoming obesity is very, very simple: STOP EATING SO MUCH. Put down that cheeseburger, lard-ass. I have no sympathy for you. Eating makes you larger. It's that simple.
(1) See a doctor. Follow his advice, not mine - I am not a doctor and am not going to be in any way responsible if you die after following my instructions.
(2) Eat moderately sized healthy meals, 3 times a day. Lots of vegetables.
(3) Don't eat between meals. I mean it. Put down that donut. No chips for you. If you must snack, no more than twice a day - and eat fruit instead of crap.
(4) If the grease on your food turns your napkin transparent - don't eat it. It's bad for you. Delivery pizza is not a health food, neither are 50% of the foods in the frozen section of your supermarket.
(5) The simplest foods tend to be the most healthy - and easy to prepare. eg: fruit, meat (grilled), rice.
(6) Exercise. Go for a walk. Take the stairs. I'm not saying go for a 4-mile run just yet (I think it's enjoyable, but you will probably die if you're super-fat). Baby steps. Or horrible huge lurching, waddling steps in your case.
If you don't follow the above and die as a result of being fat - I could not care less. Get the hell out of the gene pool.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand:
This "game tax" is a laughable excuse for raising government money. I'm amazed at the lengths that politicians will go to when they want to weasel some extra money out of the populace without admitting to it. So they pick on those they consider a minority - enough to raise the money they want, but not enough to piss off their core block of voters. All under the guise of "helping" the consumer.
They tax you when you earn it, tax you when you spend it. Personal grudges against certain segments of the media are not exactly professional. First games but then what? A special tax on movies? Television? Books? All are equally likely to make someone sit down for a bit.
... such as not having sex with fat people.
erroneous: look me up in a dictionary
I remember listening to Rush Limbaugh (yea, so shoot me!) many years back, and he was saying how having a cigarette tax would open up the door to taxation of whatever the government thought was "evil." He did his usual over-extreme exaggeration and talked about a "twinkie" tax and a bunch of other utterly ridiculous taxes. I laughed at how stupid he was, and then one day -- McDonalds was sued for selling fatty foods -- New York proposed a tax on video games for making people fat -- and I became a believer.
But The Onion said it best here: Hershey's Ordered to Pay Obese Americans $135 Billion
Give me a break, any bloody excuse to add a new tax, and I guess it shouldn't surprise anyone that this is a NY State idea. Enough freaking taxes already! The government already has more than it needs.
(pictures government officals having money fights with wads of our money)
Fine any politician $100,000 for each moronic idea they propose. That way, we can fund all the special programs we want, elminate any budget and trade deficits, pay off the national debt, and have enough left over to feed a third world country.
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed, The hands acqui
Heh -- I wrote this guy an email, as well as my own NYS assemblyman. I've given up on the formalities of writing political emails and just sorta get to the nasty point (at least, when I'm really pissed off).
Well -- the insulting informality of this one may not go too far...but at least someone's doing something.
-Turkey
It takes two hands to hold a video came controller, leaving no free hand to reach for the Doritos. Television watching, however, frees up one hand for the beer AND the other for the chips.