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NY Bill Proposes Fat Tax On Games, DVDs, Junk Food
eldavojohn writes "GamePolitics is writing about a proposal to tax things that make your kids fat. The logic from its author: 'Almost all experts agree that the primary reasons [for the obesity epidemic] are increased consumption of larger quantities of high calorie foods, snacks and sugar sweetened beverages... and lack of physical activity as vigorous play is replaced by sedentary activities such as watching more television, movies and videos and playing video games. This bill would raise revenues from modest surcharges on the very food products and sedentary activities that are linked to the lifestyle changes involved in the explosion of childhood obesity in the last 20-30 years.' Not as explicit as Japan's fat tax but we're getting there."
I applaud the effort- it's a worthy cause..
But it's not going to make anybody skinny. Just make hordes of cash under a cause that everyone would support. This is a money grab.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
This is completely typical of NY. Yet another bogus tax.
The persons hostile to taxes should even agree on this one because of the social costs of obesity.
Bring it on!!!!
This is exactly what we are all missing in our lives: more taxes.
Christ.
as much as yes, these things can make people fat, how are they trying to put video games into this? People actually SWEAT from video games. This is like saying a racecar driver gets fat because he's sitting the whole time, which many know is not true at all.
Got to love the idea too, pay extra even if you are, say, someone in shape who merely wants to cheat on their diet once in a blue moon, now should be taxed extra too. Sheesh.
So yeah, nothing but moneygrab.
Somebody build a holodeck so we can save the children!
I wonder they'll tax Wii games, or make an exception for them. I would find it extremely ironic to tax the Wii Fit and fitness games for making someone fat.
People with office jobs should have to pay this tax. They sit on their ass all day. Why should a construction worker, a whorehouse picker, or any other manual labour have to support office workers' sedentary lifestyle?
Do i get a tax break for buying celery?
What's next, Wii subsidies?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Anyone who is morbidly obese and doesn't have a diagnosed thyroid problem gets no Medicare or Medicaid? How right wing of me! I should be kind and compassionate by paying taxes to support the health care of people who know their habits are destroying them.
It is simply reclaiming what they are going to pay out
Got a letter from my company's health insurance yesterday.
"Health care premiums will increase as a direct result of the State Legislature approving the Governor's proposed increases in taxes, fees and assessments on your health benefits on February 4, as part of his Deficit Reduction Plan."
So they're taxing both ends.
Let's tax magazines and books.
Why don't we also have a "Crap Tax" wherein those who consume food and subsequently release it into sewage systems must pay a percentage relative to the weight of their waste? This would have the additional benefit of taxing those who consume more and probably be about as effective as the tax proposed in TFA.
Or they could just rename the 'video game tax' the "crap tax" and be more honest about the quality of their reasoning on the issue.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
The problem isn't that there aren't enough taxes on junk food, the problem is that there's too much crap in it.
While it would be nice to think that putting taxes on garbage disguised as food would promote the availability of real food, I'm inclined to doubt that things work that way.
I ride my stationary bike while I watch DVDs. Should I get a tax credit because I bought exercise equipment to offset a tax that assumes too much?
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
"Almost all experts agree that the primary reasons [for the obesity epidemic] are increased consumption of larger quantities of high calorie foods, snacks and sugar sweetened beverages... and lack of physical activity"
So wait...you're trying to tell me that the first law of thermodynamics is true? Lies!
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
How about lowing (or even removing) taxesd on things that are likely to help keep you fit. Sporting equip, health foods, etc.
Oh thats right the greedy fucks don't get any money from that.
I mean, there HAVE been studies that show the obesity levels began rising at the same time that High Fructose Corn Syrup started to infiltrate all of our foods.
I mean do they REALLY need to add HFCS to Tomato Sauces, Soups, etc. ?
The best thing lately has been the return to sugar as a sweetener. Pepsi Throwback is one great example (its much less sweet than regular pepsi - and I'm a Coke drinker primarily).
UPS Sucks
This makes a lot of sense. The healthcare bills, and the societal cost, for caring for the health challenges associated with obesity are enormous.
However, the imposition of a tax will require a significant cultural shift. Entire isles of grocery stores are dedicated to sweet, often unhealthy, foods. Television programs, and even youth culture, promotes candy. Heck, when I was young, I loved candy (and still do!)
And, not only do people love sweet things, companies make a hefty profit on their foods. So the switch is both an individual, and a profit-motive, switch that needs to occur.
In that sense, it challenges our culture -- and I'm curious to explore how that's navigated (as it has been, for instance, at some schools).
Thoughts? How does one roll a change like this through the political process?
--Dave
Tax your gasoline to a similar degree as in Europe. That would encourage less car journeys, more walking/cycling and act as a buffer for when the oil prices start increasing again so your gas prices won't double practically overnight again.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
The government has gone so far out to control our lives with taxes on things people disapprove of it isn't funny.
It will only get better once the government has gone so far out of whack that it micromanages every aspect of our lives. Only then will there be enough pushback
when you will have to go underground to get a decent rat-burger (with fries) and a cold beer...
I don't know what the big deal is. I'm rather UNDERweight because I play games. I way 155 and I'm 6'2 1/2". I play WoW for weeks on end and barely eat. Only beer is what keeps me from being 140 again which I was before I turned 21 seven years ago. I say BOOO and just learn to not feed your fat faces.
From TFA:
A bill currently before the New York Assembly would add a one-quarter of one percent tax to the sale or rental of video games and video game hardware. (It is estimated that the) bill would raise $50 million in revenue.
The scary thing is that this means that something like $200 billion are being spent on movies, games and junk food. That's a whole lot of money.
Smivs on the intertubes!
People want free health care, people want free this, that, and the other thing.
and they will find enough people who will feel it is OK to tax X because said people don't like X. The problem is that group will get whacked by people who don't like Y.
A VAT by any other name.
The stuff has to be paid for. The fastest way to keep people dependent on the government and keep people poor is to make it easy to be dependent and poor.
I know people who would cheer those gamers being taxed, I have vegan friends who would have a parade for fatties to pay more tax...
it never ends... too many people take enjoyment by having others punished. Most get bent when it occurs because of "religious" reasons but honestly does it matter when it comes down to it?
Democracies always have problems when people finally figure out they can vote themselves other peoples money, its worse when elected officials realize it works to keep them in office. Its even worse when a sitting President uses the bully pulpit to stomp on contract law and intimidate lawful holders of guaranteed debt to give it up.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
The problem that's unique to the US is that government corn subsidies makes corn cheaper than anything else. So manufacturers use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar as sweetener.
HFCS is not only a sugar substitute, it also gets put into things that wouldn't otherwise be sweetened if you had to pay the full cost of sugar to sweeten it.
How about the US government stop subsidising corn?
Does my bum look big in this?
I hope the american people will get to vote on such a thing.
I do offer another idea however, why dont we have stricter food regulations and maby re-formulate some of the ways we make food so that its healthy for us.
Maby also spend more on school sports and after school activitys?
Pull soda machines from schools, they have already done this in the state i live.
oh whats that none of these really make money to buy your mansions and mercedes? they must be bad ideas then.
Now you can have fat kids and less money.
What the hell is going on in New York lately? I just read you folks are going to start charging people who live in homeless shelters.
None of these things make people fat! Parents let their kids get fat. When I was young, I had a Nintendo and Gameboy and plenty of videos and TV to watch, but my Mother wouldn't let me sit on my ass and watch them all day. She made all of her children go outside. If we were bored, she gave us yard work and/or other chores to do! The children today aren't going to get less fat if they tax this stuff because people will keep buying it (look at cigarettes, we know that they will give you cancer and they tax the hell out of it, almost $8.00 a pack in NY, but millions of people buy them every day). If you want to stop kids from being fat do something to get the parents involved. Start making your kids play outside!!!!
Somewhere in a dark place you will find:
www.m1
when I just read this article linked from the main page.
Judging by a large portion of the people I work with, and the cruft found between their keyboards when they whine their keys aren't working correctly, I'd say the study is spot on.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
If you're against sedentary activities in general, the list is surely much longer than videogames and DVDs. How about, say, books? Or televisions? Or board games?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I'm a marathoner who spends quite a bit of time playing video games.
Do I get a tax deduction for the hours I spend running?
Instead of taxing the items, each child is weighed and then the parents have to pay for each pound above an "ideal" weight. To keep it fair the parents of underweight children should also be forced to pay, as this is also unhealthy. If govt decides the coffers are still lean then have a mid-year weigh in to get more cash.
for purposes of weight loss. I put it (and a tv) in front of a stationary bike. I'm 60% of the way towards my weight loss goal. I wouldn't be nearly this far without it. Playing Baldur's Gate or Fallout is *much* more fun than riding the bike alone. I actually have to force myself to get off the bike & stop playing.
Why the 'ef is the city taxing these things that *fit* folks also enjoy.
I enjoy Video games, watching DVD's and the occasional 2^32 calorie baconator sandwich. I also work out with weights 4 days a week and try to squeeze in some cardio on the weekends. I work hard to keep myself in shape, why the heck should I be paying these dumb taxes just because the city decided to play nanny to some obviously retarded morons..
This reeks of the typical lawyer 'shift the blame' mentality. Tax the fat fucking folks not the source of their fat, charge them double on Airplanes and subways, the assholes take up 2.5 seats each, tax them for treating walkways like amusement park rides, tax them for holding up pedestrian traffic, No more disabled parking stickers for fat retards, let them walk and burn it off.
Make an exception in case of folks that can't help it e.g. thyroid disorders but all the other morons stuffing themselves with Big Mac's all day long, teach them a lesson. the Japanese way sounds pretty good..
OOh, man, that sounds an intresting job, but I really would want free rubber gloves. Tripple strength.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I'm not a nutritionist, nor play one on TV, but I can make the argument that one can of Coke every day does *not* make a person overweight, while eating too much broccoli *will*.
The point: this is not about nutrition or health, but rather, about the government finding *any excuse it can* to extract more and more money from the pockets of it's citizenry... while at the same time imposing more and more of it's will on them.
A day will come... sooner than the busybody pointy-head academics, power hungry Congressional thugs, and greedy special-interest lobbyists think... when those of us peasants who continuously get ravaged by out of control lawmakers, have finally had enough... and we begin reaching for our pitchforks.
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
If you'
Just stop subsidizing corn and corn syrup, and establish something like the FDA, but functioning.
Growing up, and trying to deal with my diet, I realized at some point that all these drive-throughs kill people. You can't live off of McDonalds. If you ate Burger King for every meal you would die. Yet this food is marketed more, cheaper than, and more convenient than going to the grocery store. Going to the grocery store to pick up some fruit takes longer and costs more than stopping by Del Taco. Something is wrong here.
(To you people who can't live without your fast food, I just say this as someone who struggled with obesity, you diet is a huge part of your health. It's not easy. Going to drive throughs too often KILLS YOU.)
I've thought about this and similar subjects a lot (such as smoking cigarettes) and I think society has the following options.
Re: Fat Tax. It doesn't sit well with me. However, I admit that this tax will affect some people who might get something from the grocery store instead of ordering Pizza. It will make fat food cost more than healthy food. (I almost like this tax for this reason alone.)
After thinking about it, I realized I wasn't so against a fat tax as I thought I was. But damn, if you're gonna make a fat tax then lower some other goddamn taxes! Make my fucking carrots and apples and oranges tax free! (Oh god... who gets to decide what food is "healthy" and what food is "unhealthy"?)
Kids don't play outside anymore. When I was a kid, my friends and I would go ride our bikes, go build a tree fort, play hide and seek, or play a million and one other games we made up on the spot. Sometimes we fell down, sometimes we got hurt, and once in a while we even learned something.
These days everyone is so worried. "Won't somebody think of the children!"
The Children are growing up with out learning that when you fall sometimes you get hurt.
Here is a connection these so called experts never seem to figure out. Kids that go out side to play, get exercise, and (Imagine this.) they don't get fat.
I weep for the future!
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Some people do nice things because they want to do nice things. Some people do nice things because it makes them feel good, and they enjoy the good feeling. Are they selfish? Is it selfish to donate to charity in order to qualify for a tax deduction, or to keep your income below a tax bracket?
More importantly: Does it matter?
I argue that it makes no difference at all what the reasons for a decision are, that the only really important thing is what your decision actually IS. As an employer, I don't care if an employee shows up every morning on time because he/she feels morally obligated to do so, or is simply terrified of losing the job. Does he/she show up on time in the morning?
Performance is, all by itself, a good enough indicator. And by this metric, if taxing junk food causes a net reduction in their use, that makes it worthy. And it's silly to think that taxes have no effect: "everybody knows" that taxing gasoline more will result in less of it being consumed.
As far as cutting the budget: there's only about 16% of the budget that's discretionary. The rest is tied up in interest payments and pre-obligated spending. So there's not really all that much that can be cut, without actually changing the laws around spending.
Everytime you pass a law to guarantee that XX% of YY budget gets spent on ZZ, you take away from your legislators the power to "make cuts". Do you enjoy the double-edge on that sword now?
Thanks to the neo-right, the USA has, for the last 30 years, committed to a course of distrust, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-educationalism. As a result of this, we've taken much of the control out of the hands of our elected representatives, and giving that power instead to private entities that we didn't elect and can't control. In many circles, being competent in an area is considered a direct sign of untrustworthiness. Don't believe me? Try listening to talk radio sometime, especially night time talk radio. It's just sickening.
We're only beginning to pay the price for rewarding idiocy, now. It will get much worse.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
"We should just burn fat people instead of coal"... problem solved.
1) Legalize marijuana
2) Regulate and tax it
3) PROFIT!!!
There's not even a ??? step to worry about with this one.
Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
I travel by public transport and pass by Utrecht Central Station. It has various eateries, from healthy to McD/Burger King. Price for a McD basic hamburger, 1euro. Price of a natural bagle with cream chease. 2,95. Both satisfy my hunger, but what about my thirst? 1 euro for a soft drink, 3 euro for a fruit shake. If I am buy a meal it is 2 bagles and 1 fruit juice , nearly 10 euro's or 2 hamburder and a soda for 3 euro.
I am making a decent salary but also got expenses.
Now imagine a tax which made the hamburger cost 3 euro and lowered the sales tax on healthy foor dropping its price to 2,50. A LOT easier to remain healthy.
Doubt it will work this way, but still, if you got to tax something, then tax something I want to cut down on buying anyway.
So go for it I say. It means the end of the month won't see me stuffing myself with more fat then is good for me.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
...kidding me!?!?!?! I guess the 8 hours kids spend in school is also contributing to a sedentary lifestyle. Homework? Shouldn't the kids be out playing? I certainly hope parents are discouraged from buying their kids books. Trying reading while burning calories.
What a joke. As one guy already said this is some politician trying to cash in where ever he can. I play tons of games, watch tons of movies and I have washboard abs. Why? Because those hobbies aren't mutually exclusive with exercising.
What happened to free will and free choice? If sitting on your ass watching TV, drinking cokes makes you fat who cares. Why should the government have the right to tell someone they need to not do/consume certain things via a tax.
Someone could argue that fat people cost more in medical expenses and because of this they cause the cost of medical procedures to rise. This may be true. However, if someone is over weight they have a higher chance of death via heart attack, or diabetes. Healthy people end up living longer, and costing more money. So what is the problem with someone being fat? In the long run they cost less.
On the other hand could fit people also cause medical expenses to rise? Running is bad for your knees you could twist a knee or ankle in basketball or baseball. You could get a concussion in football or loose tooth in hockey.
So being both health or fat increase the cost of insurance and medical expenses on a whole, so why just target fat people? Is this just a political/social vendetta against over weight people?
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
It isn't about making people skinny, it's about paying for the additional medical costs incurred by obesity.
Nothing like doing everything in their power to avoid looking at the root-cause of obesity in this country. Tell your fat-ass kid to put the fucking pizza and 64oz. Cherry Slurpee down, step away from the game controller and go for a walk.
Want to look deeper into root-cause? Fine. Why the hell are we selling 64oz of ANYTHING for single human consumption?
Yeah, there ARE people with a genuine glandular problem. But for the other 99% of those morbidly obese, the disease is laziness, and is being fed by the Super-size-me vendor.
Oh, wait, I forgot. This isn't about looking for a cure, it's about looking to find ways to prolong and tax the shit out of the problem. My bad. Hell, while we're at it, why don't we legalize marijuana? That ought to boost junk food sales and generate a TON of obesity proble...er I mean tax revenue.
Have you ever even visited the US? Many areas are so thoroughly designed with the car in mind that attempting to walk, cycle or use public transport is downright impossible.
You think people drive their car less in europe? You are funny. Even with the very high oil prices last year public transport STILL cost more and its prices increased more then taking a car. Also the sales of SUV's and the like only increased.
Sorry, nothing gets people out of their car.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
When fat is outlawed, only Outlaws will be fat.
What about other sedentary activities like lawmakers who sit around thinking up this crap?
On a more serious note, what about sedentary jobs? What about stress? If you apply the same logic to all activities then people would have to pay to be air traffic controllers.
I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
to penalize the fossil fuel hogs.
Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout
What exactly is a program designed to counter childhood obesity? Would this involve slapping around the parents of fat kids?
I'm not sure a $50 million dollar program is going to make parents any more likely to limit their kid's tv/game time or stop feeding them fast food.
Perhaps a better way would be to have parents take their kids down to the Secretary of State and have them registered like cars, and pay a fee based on weight class.
Fat people always sweat, so are you suggesting they're always exercising?
Well I guess you're right. If I was lugging around a 50kg backpack all the time, it would be exercise.
But not when I'm sitting on the couch.
Interestingly, I wonder how they will classify junk food. This could force makers of junk food to reduce fat content in their products to get out from underneath the classification as a "junk food". It may additionally force fast food restraunts to serve more healthy alternatives to avoid the label as well. Taxing video games and DVD's for the same reason is stupid, but why not tax junk food?
If these legislators are going to become truly, crazy taxers, they should go after REAL targets, like the companies who are putting High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) into everything they make, as well... If the food industry cut the HFCS out of half of what they produce, people would start losing some weight naturally. (Of course, the cardboard crap that they pass off as food these days wouldn't exactly tempt the palette anymore without the HFCS sweetening it up, and the corn lobby would go nuts, so the odds of this happening are about as likely as a fat man dunking on a 10 foot rim, but one can dream...)
Why not tax people that use Internet Explorer? It's making the internet worse.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
As long as the laws are consistent I'm fine with it.
You say video games cause people to be stationary and fat or obese? They need to be taxed? Ok.
What about reading? Watching cable television? Going to the movies and sitting?
Why single out video games for making people immobile? Why not have a 'stationary tax' that taxes all activities that aren't physical fitness? Isn't that the point? To get people to exercise more?
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1897920,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
"Why Kids' Exercise Matters Less Than We Think"
A study showing how exercise in children is not understood very well by the public.
http://www.canada.com/Health/Overeating+blame+obesity+epidemic/1584819/story.html
"Overeating to blame for U.S. obesity epidemic"
Exercise has very little to do with the fact that Americans are so fat. It's all over-consumption of calorie rich foods.
http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=91611
Billionaire moves from NYS to Florida because of taxes.
The billionaires are moving because of the taxes...imagine how these taxes affect the working poor of NYC...it's awful.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090511/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_transit_woes_3
NY mass transit increases fees by 10 percent.
I swear if NYS could figure out how to tax breathing they would. Governor Patterson has such a low approval rating right now that more New Yorkers, including myself, would prefer Elliot Spitzer back.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090505/NEWS/905050327/1006/RSS01
They forgot to tax school busses!
If all the kids would walk to school, even a few miles, they would get a lot more exercise than they do today.
I'd really love to know how they plan on distinguishing video games, DVDs, and junk food that makes one fat from those that don't.
Wii Fit, for example, is a video game that, presuming you actually use it, requires some measure of physical activity. It's not running a marathon by any stretch, but some activity is certainly healthier than none.
And DVDs... shouldn't exercise DVDs be excluded from this tax? And if so, what counts as exercise? Pilates? Yoga? Meditation?
Finally, junk food. One can walk into GNC, Dick's Sporting Goods, or REI and pick up "energy" bars that are designed to replenish energy in active individuals. Many of these contain more calories than a Snickers bar. Should we tax those, too? A kid can get just as fat chomping on those as he can on regular candy bars.
I hate using these words but... it's a slippery slope.
Why not just make people get on a scale and write a check for x number of dollars per pound? Let's not beat around the bush here. There are too many loophole opportunities here.
I used to play WoW. And seeing all the nicely built avatars sometimes made me think I should be working on my own "real life avatar".
Some Gryphon rides would take so long and surfing the Internet while waiting was getting boring. So eventually I started doing push-ups, sit-ups, etc. The rides averaged about 5 minutes, and sometimes you find yourself going back and forth quite a bit in one day. So it turned out that I often got in a lot of good workout time.
But then I quit WoW and now I have my life back. But at what cost?! Sometimes I think, if I had continued, I could be sitting in my chair in my dimly lit room, cut off from society and the rest of the world, with an awesome body. =P
But seriously. I did do that. And it actually worked pretty well.
It's staggeringly obvious that what's being sold in the other aisles is typically not very healthy.
Also: why is a vegetarian burger at least 5 times more expensive than a beef burger? It should be cheaper because it takes far less resources to produce that amount of protein. Probably industry subsidies?
In general it's far more expensive to eat healthy food, than non-healthy. Still I'd rather have less money than less health.
You are out of your gourd if you think corn has no nutritional value. It was the staple grain in the diet of many Native American tribes for centuries. That doesn't mean we should turn it in to a sugar substitute and put it in everything, but trying to pretend that it isn't an important grain is silly.
What about all those TVs in weight rooms? or the movies I watch at the Dentist?
It's a nice idea but the reasons people get fat would make this law unconstitutional without a doubt. Maybe public health care and fine them when they turn up at the doctors and are fat... then you would have what you silly americans have now... A bunch of rich people with doctor; A bunch of people without doctors and a bunch of people avoiding the doctors (now because they are going to have to pay more).
This thing will never get passed. Keep the idea to yourself Japan.
Turns out at around $4/gallon, people DID start changing their habits. No people didn't just abandon their cars and stop driving, but people cut back on unnecessary trips, fuel efficient cars sold more, and so on.
Now I'm not saying a gas tax is the best idea since it is a heavily regressive tax, but it can work to change habits. Small changes don't do it, gas is fairly inelastic, however you get it expensive enough, people start changing their lifestyle.
I am anecdotal evidence that video games do not make people fat. I used to play Nintendo far more than the average kid and I'm nowhere near overweight. I've always been quite the opposite, a scrawny build with tons of energy. Video games helped me release some of that energy, especially in the winter time when playing outside wasn't even an option.
I'm so tired of video games being used as a scape goat for (insert problematic trend) and I strongly oppose all sin taxes. There is no such thing as a tax that is good for you, but that is how they always present the issue.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
. . . people make themselves fat. A fair "fat tax" would tax fat folks, and not stuff that skinny puppies also happen to buy/consume as well.
Yeah, let's have another go at trying to disassociate people from their own behavior.
"No, it's not your fault that you're fat! It's those low taxes on DVDs! It's their fault!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I ran a half marathon last year and I hope to run a full marathon this year. There is almost no fat on my body. I go to the gym and then come home and relax by playing video gams.
If I lived in NY, I'd be pissed. Playing video games and exercise are not mutually exclusive. Maybe if these kids had parents that didn't sit around watching TV every night while eating their take out dinner there wouldn't be a problem?
It's no surprise to anyone here that new games cost $50 or $60 dollars, plus tax, making them about $55 or $65, this new tax will increase them.
Why don't many people buy video games? They cost too much. This will only increase piracy.
Has the old saint in his forest not yet heard of it? That God is dead?
I bet if you did the maths, the numbers wouldn't add up
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
The problem is that they're not paying into the system as long either.
So they may cost the system less, but they also pay less.
I know that when I was home studying and doing my math/english/etc homework I was probably burning even fewer calories than when I got exited and involved playing some game. Does this mean that lawmakers are going to ban homework and studying? Or perhaps make everyone do their English papers while running on a treadmill? My handwriting is bad enough when I'm sitting at a desk, I'd hate to be the person trying to read something I wrote when all sweaty and bouncing around on exercise equipment...
Let me slightly remove my foot from my mouth: the bill does seem to explicitly imply "Fat" stuff. So in that regard, yea, you're right. However, I don't see it taking alot of imagination to change 'fat' to 'unhealthy.'
Yeah, tell me how 2-3 hours DDR a day makes me fat?
It's even on DVD... should I pay twice?
To stay the fuck out of that area.
I won't touch their "meat" because it has to much cow fecal matter in it.
Only grade A meat for me.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Perhaps we should tax the hookers in DC, bribes, lobbyist paid gifts.
-- if you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
This proposed tax won't change anything. It's just profiteering from our unfortunate reality.
The U.S's obesity problem is not going to go away anytime soon. It's the result of a whole lot chickens coming home to roost.
1. Food companies abandoning quality for quantity to increase profits.
2. Our government subsidizing corn so high fructose corn syrup is in nearly all processed foods.
3. Over saturation of media which is keeping people indoors.
4. An advertising industry that is finding every way possible to make us consume more and more.
5. Our very landscape requiring the vast majority of us to use cars to go anywhere.
6. Our 'post-industrial' economy that requires people to sit on their butts at a desk most of their day.
Plus dozens of other reasons.
The only way to truly fix this problem is to change nearly everything about the way we live today. Good luck with that. You'll be fighting a lot of powerful people who run a lot of powerful organizations that are make a lot of dollars off of this problem who want to keep things just as they are.
I'm hoping people just wisen up to reality soon and stop consuming anything and everything that's up for sale. So they don't keep profiteers in both industry and government in power.
Stuff like this is going to look real dumb once a cure for obesity is found. It's only popular to hate on fat people now because the weight loss industry has convinced the public that a person's weight is entirely under their control, and that obese people are only obese because they choose to eat even when they aren't hungry and they choose not to exercise just because it isn't as fun as video games and television.
You know what? I weigh 250 pounds. I fucking hate television. I don't care for video games either. I don't have a lot of energy, and so it annoys the fuck out of me to have to cook something to eat. Nothing really tastes very good anyway, so it isn't as if eating is fun. It's just another chore, like pissing and shitting, that I have to do simply because I am alive. As for exercise, I like to go outside, and I like to ride my bike, but I just don't have the energy to do things like that.
The true cause of obesity is that the brain incorrectly understands the energy reserves of the body. A person may be fat, but their brain believes that they have very little fat, and so it does what is completely logical when a person is very skinny: It tells them to eat a lot, and it tells them to avoid unnecessary exercise. The result is that people eat high-calorie foods because their bodies aren't satisfied until they do, and they avoid exercise because doing anything at all makes them feel tired, and they don't feel as if they have the energy to move around just for the fun of it.
Thankfully, real scientists continue to search for real solutions to obesity. Here's a link about a possible solution that was found earlier this year: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-01/cp-adr122908.php
The really interesting thing about what I linked to is that they didn't put the obese mice on a reduced diet nor did they force them to exercise. They simply corrected the problem that was making their bodies believe that they didn't have enough energy, and the mice subsequently ate less and exercised more, entirely of their own free will.
Thin people don't realize how easy it is for them. They might think that when they exercise, it is hard, but if it was as hard as it is for an obese person, they probably wouldn't do it. They also seem to think that when they gain a few extra pounds and "diet" to lose them, that they've experienced what an obese person must experience to lose weight, when the truth is that they probably would have lost that weight had they done nothing at all since a person's weight doesn't remain perfectly constant.
The simple fact is that no one likes being obese, no one likes eating when they aren't hungry, and running around is always fun when you have the energy. Fat people are fat because there is something wrong with them, and it isn't fair to tax them for being ill.
First they went after alcohol. I didn't notice because it was before my time.
Then they went after the smokers with taxes. I said "good they shouldn't smoke anyhow."
Now they are going after fat people. I said "wait a second, I'm not fat..."
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Unhealthy individuals (smokers, drinkers, eaters, game players) may actually cost health systems less because these individuals will probably die sooner and need less care over their lifespan compared to "healthy individuals" who live longer lives and will suffer age related health issues.
We will all eventually have health issues.
The main benefit as individuals is that we can control our quality of life and influence our expected lifespan. The impact of "the unhealthy" on the health care systems I am unconvinced about.
Personally I try to eat healthy and exercise three times a week. As it gives me a higher quality of life.
I thought all the sugar sweetened beverages were really sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. The sugar growers should be up and arms over this.
I don't think this is a good idea. The food isn't bad in itself, it's the choice to eat too much of that junk food that's bad. What should happen is that, if your eating choices make you a fatty then your health insurance company should charge you more than everyone else and then use the extra money they get from fatties to cover weight-loss expenditures like nutrition or diet programs (ex. Weight Watchers) or even gym memberships. As long as you go to your meetings and exercise regularly, your health insurance should reimburse you. They do the same for smokers don't they? You pay more for health insurance if you smoke but health insurance usually pays for quit-smoking programs. Of course, this does nothing for the 46 million Americans who don't even have health insurance in the first place.
But this is just another issues that the medical provider and health insurance companies have failed to actually address, so I'm not surprised the government is stepping in. If the private sector would actually do something to combat the obesity problem in the U.S. then the government wouldn't have justification to step in.
Am I the only one to find this kind of moves totally unfair to the people who aren't obese or have a healthier life/diet?
Weighting less than 90 pounds at adult age, I am offended by efforts regarding obesity generated by junk food business and junk food lovers. Obesity is a condition that can more easily be worked around than trying to gain weight, believe it or not.
Having to pay another tax when I go watch a movie or rent one because the suckers next to me can't refrain from chomping on pop-corns, slurping on sugar-exploded sodas, or absorbing other smelly crap while ruining the whole movie theater ambiance in the process, outrages me to no end.
The problem here has nothing to do with medicare, medicaid or anything other than behavioural problems and big companies taking advantage of that. Time for our "modern" society to look back at the fat belly button and change our ways.
Why don't they just hire another hundred thousand "security officers" and start setting up weigh stations at random out on the street and make people get weighed. Those that don't pass some obscure BMI chart, too fat (or too skinny, outside their perfect "norm") according to them, get fined and put on the "terrorist watch list", because they are abusing the environment and consuming more of their "fair share" and taking up "too much" of the health care system theoretically and so on. Three times someone fails their checks, they get sent to the "reeducation camps". Oh, and they get an embedded RFID chip after the first failure, "for security tracking purposes".
They tell us that we are Free Men,
But the only rights you have are what they decide for you to have.
What makes you think you have the rights to the fruits of your labor?
What makes you think you have the right to eat what you want?
What makes you think you have a right of privacy?
What makes you think you are free?
What will make you think?
If we were using the fair tax system this would not even be an issue.
I eat whatever I want, sit most of the day in front of my PC/desk and like watching movies on my TV. I also work out five days a week for an hour-and-a-half a day and run two miles a day. My body fat is under 8%.
How about a stupid politician tax instead? Any politician that scores under 120 on a Mensa standardised IQ test gets to pay a 50% tax rate on his income.
Substitute the white flour pasta for something like spinach or other veggie noodles like Jerusalem artichoke pasta, and substitute half the cheese for a splash of olive oil and some sprinkled on nutritional yeast. Just keep sprinkling it on and do some slow stirring of it until it hits the texture you want.
How right wing of me!
But why the bleeding-heart liberalism toward those who have a thyroid problem? If you really want to be right-wing, you should refuse coverage to anyone who appears unfit to the State.
We cant actually REMOVE the products from the market because then we would loose money. Nor can we just better control them with the ESRB and other legislative type solutions. No the real solution is for US to make the parents - who obviously have no time for their children in the first place pay MORE to keep their children off the streets and out of gangs.
Hey mr Politician. Would you rather a crip or blud mug you in the street? Or would you rather some fat kid try to take off in your porsche he doesnt actually know how to hotwire, and definately cannot outrun a police officer?
Would you rather your kid gettin fat off candy or getting lean and muscular from all the drugs, and crime he has to commit to keep up the drug habit?
Oh wait what was I thinking... there is no logic, or compassion for others in this. Just another opportunity for you to get richer.
And this has been another installament of Captain Obvious!
The proposal is currently before the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee, where it seems likely to remain. This is Ortiz's fourth attempt at similiar[sic] legislation since 2003; none have made it out of committee.
Like I said before, it's nice to see the mentally disabled getting jobs.
Way to go Assemblyman Ortiz! Just a few years ago people would be making fun of you, now you get to "write laws"!
Next week let's work on chewing gum AND walking at the same time!
Why not fat tax recliners and comfy couches along with any channel that shows the NFL all day on Sunday (and Beer too)?
I'm sure that will help the slightly older generation also get out there and be fit.
If you get a small freezer (around 6 cubic feet or so), it will hold a small side of beef (say if you start out with a 600 lb critter). If you get a larger freezer obviously it will hold the whole thing or an even larger animal, and you can get chest freezers upto around 26 cubic feet in most appliance stores. You can usually find a "side" or half a beaste for around a dollar a lb live weight (at least what I am seeing in the auction market news around the US), and after the packing house processes it and you pay their fees, it will work out to around 2 bucks a lb for all the various cuts, and you'll have a bit more in weight in the freezer than around half the live weight, approximately 60%. Buying in bulk like that will pay in savings for the freezer the first time, after that, it gets a lot cheaper. If you can only swing a half, obviously you'll have to find someone to go in with on the purchase, that's about the only hassle really.
Can i get a tax break if i go the gym then?
The government, from the top down continues to look for anything they can tax and get away with. Before they tax our urine and dumps we need to stand together and shout very loud..."ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! Government is a bad apple!
Lipid Leggin'
I agree, but time IS money. When I was growing up, my mom made healthy home-cooked meals because my dad could support a family on a single salary (with no college education). Today in most families, both parents are working full-time to generate the same standard of living and there is little time to make healthy food.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Milk and High Fructose Corn Syrup are two of the most unhealthy foods that children consume yet there is no tax on either one. The fat tax is therefore political in nature because if it were legit they wouldnt tax products, they'd tax ingredients, such as milk and high fructose corn syrup.
And before the pro milk people respond that milk has calcium, you can get more calcium from a can of sardines than you can get from a glass of milk, without the unhealthy side effects. Lets also consider banning the sale of caffeine to children, caffeine is a drug for christs sake and certainly isn't healthy.
Do the Nintendo Wii and its balance board get a tax exemption?
Cause I sure like hell burn calories playing it :)
Same for Dance Dance Revolution and its offspring!
Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
This is quite clearly not a Troll, but an informative reply. If the government offers its help by doing your health insurance, it makes sense it will then turn around and demand that you act in such a way the health insurance won't be too expensive.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
These are the three main products which cause obesity and health related issues in children. Corn Syrup and Caffeine are obvious because they aren't foods. Caffeine is a drug and Corn Syrup is an industrial chemical sweetener. This leaves Milk and the myth that all children need to drink milk. Milk has a lot of calories, and not as much nutritional value as sardines, beans, or other foods. Milk even when its low fat, tends to have hormones in it, and Milk has been known to raise insulin levels and actually promote fat storage. People such as body builders and athletes drink milk to bulk up and gain weight, and what do most kids have for breakfast? High fructose corn syrup and Milk in the form of cereal and milk. Public schools would force kids to consume these breakfasts, I know because I remember. How about we give kids a can of sardines for breakfast? No more obesity problem.
But games and DVD's? I can't see higher priced games and dvds resulting is less play time / watch time. Once I've purchased a game or dvd I'm not going to watch it any less. If anything I'll just play the same game more. Someone that has to spend an extra $5 on their WoW subscription per month isn't going to play less or cancel their account, they're going to play more if anything to justify the increased cost. If they already spend 100 hours a month gaming or spend about 200 hours or something per game, the cost difference is negligible. Having to spend more on DVDs and movie tickets won't get people less active if they can't afford it, they'll probably just pirate it instead. How about going the other way and giving tax breaks for gym memberships / people with a low BMI etc..? Without any sort of incentives or breaks included in this bill, it just seems like another money grab.
Global warming and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking number of pirates - Gospel of the FSM
Tax junk food and put tghe money into public health care, fine.
There has been exactly one(1) study looking at TV watching and obesity. And children who are obese and have there TV removed from the household remained obese.
It's the easy access to high fat foods that's the real culprit.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I used to think the same way because I'm still poor. I currently spend $150 a month on food, this is considered to be cheap. I eat sardines, salmon, beans, blueberries, nuts, seeds. I do not consume milk products if I'm trying to lose a few pounds. I do not consume high fructose corn syrup or any processed food. I do not consume caffeine. I do not smoke. I do not consume sugar.
It's possible to be healthy and be poor, just stop shopping at the supermarkets set up in poor neighborhoods for poor people like Stop and Shop, and go and buy your bulk food online. You can buy 30 cans of sardines, this is enough to give you breakfast/lunch for 30 days. You can buy 20 cans of salmon, and this will give you dinner for 20 days. You can buy a huge 20lb bag of nuts and this will last you 30-60 days.
The point is, you can eat healthy and be poor, but you have to eat boring. I essentially eat exactly the same 2-3 meals every day with no variation at all. When it comes to being healthy, with food diversity is bad. It's actually healthiest to eat the exact same foods on a regular basis because this way the body gets used to burning those foods efficiently and you wont put on any fat.
Speaking of fat, not all fat is bad, avocado and oil oil is good, fish oil is very good.
To be healthy you need
1. Low glycemic index slow digesting carbs.
2. Protein.
3. Fat
4. A multivitamin.
So for carbs you can have a staple, beans, rice, anything but bread and sugar.
For protein go with fish or/and eggs, avoid mammals.
For fat go with polyunsaturated, such as olive oil, fish oil, flax seed, and in general sunflowerseeds are a good source of fat with a tradeoff of being high fiber.
The last tip is to eat the same 3 meals every day, every month, with as little variation as possible. After a few months of this you'll get tired of the taste but at the same time your body will have learned to efficiently burn off the kinds of foods you are eating. The body actually has evolved so that it burns off whatever you eat a lot of, so if you eat a lot of chips it gets good at burning chips, but if you eat a lot of high fat meats it gets good at burning that. The point is to not switch between high sugar, and high fat, in the same week or same day, if you have a coke with your burger and fries it will cause your body to not burn any of them efficiently but if you just have the burger, or just the fries, or just the coke, and you have that every day, the body will learn to burn that off efficiently. This is one reason why some people don't get fat, this is also why body builders don't eat with much variety and are ripped. Variety is the killer.
A MONEY GRAB is a MONEY GRAB by any other name....
and we continue our downward spiral....
If you want to a) cut the budget massively, b) have a net positive effect on peoples health, then get rid of the FDR Farm subsidies.
Farm subsidies just encourage food manufacturers in this country to use high fructose corn syrup instead of other, healthier, forms of sweetener.
If you like variety its going to be more expensive, if you don't mind eating beans every single day and fish every single day, it's cheap. In Japan they eat rice every single day with fish and thats sushi, and it's cheap, but if you have only sushi its also very boring.
I've never understood this aversion to fat. Humans are evolved to digest fat. If you want to make your mac'n'cheese healthier, don't eat all the reprocessed crap that's in Kraft.
Seriously? You've never heard of saturated fat and its effect on cholesterol?
As flavorless and unimpressive as most processed crap is from Kraft, Mac & Cheese made with skim milk is going to be a hell of a lot healthier than your average, tasty, cheesy homemade recipe -- even if you use low fat cheese. All the recipes I can dig up weigh in over 300 calories per serving against Kraft's 260. And most normal recipes not targeted to dieters weigh in over 600 calories per serving. To get lower than that the low-fat cheese recipes, you're going to have to start putting substitute ingredients like squash purees. Sodium is really the biggest place Kraft's going to lose.
(To be fair, I would have never noticed this fact if you hadn't used that example -- and I hadn't just made a delicious, full-fat mac & cheese recipe last night.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Of course I haven't read TFA, but I can already tell they aren't taxing enough things to make their plan work. In my (fictional) dictatorship, if I wanted to reduce the fat index by way of a tax, I'd tax/outlaw the following things, at a minimum, before I'd touch games:
- Any food or snack with a positive calorie count (double tax for anything containing refined sugars or obscene amounts of fat)
- Any drinks with added sugars, especially if it was bubbly or made by adding carbonated water to a syrup.
- Chairs, benches, stools, ottomans or anywhere else you could possibly park that fat ass of yours on. Get up and move around, fatty!
- Cars, motorcycles, boats, parachutes, public transportation, any form of transportation that uses gas, electricity, wind, hamsters or baby kitten blood to move. Possible tax break for modes of transportation that run off of mind power, âcause that's just cool.
- Escalators, elevators, moving sidewalks (unless they were designed to move in the direction opposite of people using them). All tall buildings would have their elevator shafts converted to climbing walls instead.
- So-called low-calory low-fat diet food (they're just an excuse for people to eat larger portions than they should be.)
- TV, cable, PVRs, radio, DVDs (already mentioned in TFA, I know), movie theatres or anything else that encourages you to sit still while perhaps snacking
- Touch-tone phones and cell phones would be outlawed, and rotary phones and cell phones would replace them.
- Vacations, Christmas, Thanksgiving, long weekends or any other holiday or event where larger than normal quantities of food are consumed or below average energy is expanded
- Double tax on Country music (has nothing to do with TFA, but what the hell, it's my fictional dictatorship and I can tax whatever the hell I want)
- Power drills, saws, mixers, painters. Hell, power anything. If using it doesn't make you skinnier, it must be making you fatter, so lets tax it!
- Work, unless your work requires that you expand a lot of energy. Office work would be double taxed.
- Welfare, work layoffs, joblessness, disability, maternity leave, sabbaticals, work strikes, hospitalization or any other state of unemployment that's conducive to loafing
- Waiting. That's right, waiting for anything, like a bus, plane, doctor's appointment, delivery, using the bathroom, etc would also be taxed, as would the person responsible for making you wait. Precious calorie burning time is being wasted every day while people wait for things.
- Etc. I'm sure you get the picture.
Hate to through a conspiracy theory amongst the pigeons, but the bill (http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A02455) proposes taxes on "video and DVD movies" - there's no mention of Blu-Ray. Encouraged upgrades, anyone?
Seriously though, if the real intent of this bill is to reduce childhood obesity then the taxes should be applied to childhood things: snacks for kids; G-rated movies, videos, DVD and Blu-Ray titles; *INDOOR TOYS* and the like.
Will they tax violent and sexy media less because they get the heart rate up?
I just had a new family move in down the street from me, and their kids do play outside. I noticed because I was shocked to see children playing outside.
On my way out from my house to the main road I pass a school with a park, and another park. There are no kids playing at either one.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
How about making the state government in N.Y. **a lot* smaller?
Other people have to cut back in an economic down turn, governments (big and small) should be doing exactly the same thing.
Like I said, a novel idea, which would mean that for politicians, they would suffer a severe case of WHOOSH when encountering one or more novel ideas.
I can see them on the radar.
The numbers did not add up for Social Security either. :)
But scientists already determined it's not the lack of exercise that is making Americans fat, it's the excess intake of food.
Which makes your point moot, like that guy from 4chan.
Only the rich can eat and play games and watch movies now huh?>
And within the last, hell, decade even - millions of people suddenly gained a "brain problem" which requires they eat twice as much food as a normal person and not move. Whatever.
Next thing you know, they'll tax porn. I sure hope not, that's the only exercise I get a day. Nothing beats a good cardio than waxing the weasel. But I'm sure Taxy McTaxmysass would love to get in on that action and take money out of my wallet which is about three feet from me in my front pocket.
The bottom line, NY wants more money. "It's for your own good" is crap. Anyone who has worked in a manufacturing job has gotten to work with every and any random toxic substance known to man, but an extra soda is so bad for you that you must be punished for drinking it. NY, just be honest and say that you think you need more money, and so you are taxing soda. When was it decided that our life decisions must be subordinated to the maximization of insurance company bottom lines. If I am a slave of the state, at least tell me. If I am a free man, allow me to live my life as I see fit.
Surprised that this is on a real news site and not The Onion. :(
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I don't know if it was this bill that I heard about a little while ago or something similar, but there are serious risks in any sort of taxation that encourages people to move away from products with real sugar and towards products with artificial sweeteners.
Are they gonna tax businesses who keep their employees confined to chairs in a cubicle for 8 hours a day?
And businesses alike.
The "Bigger Better Bottle Bill", going into effect in just a couple weeks, expands the 5 deposit to all bottled beverages - water, lemonade, iced tea, etc. - not just carbonated beverages as it is today.
This bill also adds a 2 per 6-pack tax on beer, and I think 15/bottle tax on wine.
So the consumer is reamed once again...but it gets better.
This law also requires that bottles sold in NY carry a different UPC code from other states. Many microbrewers are going to give up selling in NY because they can't absorb the costs of special labeling just for one state. Those who don't give up on NY will pass the extra costs of that labeling on to the consumers, or die because they haven't.
Albany's idea of a "smaller" budget for these hard economic times is increasing spending by 9%. I really wish I could get the hell out of this state.
A worthy cause for whom? :-)
I eat fatty/sugary/salty foods. I am older, fit, and very active. When snowboarding I tend to take in allot of fats and gallons of water.
I believe there is allot of genetics involved in how we appear and our health in general as we get older, which make this a RACIST TAX!
It's funny, but true.
I am all for a move that grabs money from the disgusting and embarrassing obese.
Lets just be honest... New York needs money. This is the 5th or 6th ridiculous new New York Tax featured on slashdot in the past year and a half. None of this has to do with anything they claim it does.
This is about poor management within NY state. Our government is out of f'n control here. We're litterally leading the state BLIND... and fucking hookers with state paychecks.
Tax soda, junk food, plastic bags, AMAZON.com.... etc... These are the brilliant ideas of our elected morons.
Lots of people pass through those toll booths every day. Supposedly they rake in 18+million a week on them... Where does all of that go? Oh wait... to BUILD 2 COMPLETELY NEW BASEBALL STADIUMS for 2 of the richest teams in baseball!
What the fuck are we doing? The Yankees should have paid for their stadium on their on. The Mets should pay for their own stadium. Let me ask you this.... Since all of our tax dollars went to building these 2 USELESS stadiums to replace 2 functioning (and 1 of which historic) stadiums... I can now assume that i can go to the games any time i want for free right? Nope. Not only did they take our tax dollars to build these redundant stadiums, they have the nerve to charge us ridiculous fees to get in. Talk about a fucking con job.
THAT is our political system at its "best"
So pay for your soda tax.... pay your GTA4 tax... :) Lets really talk about WHERE THE FUCKING MONEY GOES.... and who sells us out on a daily fucking basis. ... and I'm for National Health care folks :)
.... an idiot tax on us for electing these complete and utter morons to positions of power.
Play the Repub/Dem line all you want - we the people are to blame for electing them in the first place.
Whenever things like this happen, we all go 'ohh, that was a mistake. Should we not have done that?', then come election-time, we vote the same old sleaze into office.
Well, once again - we reap what we sow.
If firefighters fight fire, and crimefighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight? - George Carlin
Mod parent +5 funny :)
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I like games myself, but theres priorities. I also think that its BS to consider gaming as exercise, or that it helps people lose weight, its not unlike people who eat lots of food, and then vomit deliberately to "purge" themselves of calories. Its unhealthy! If people just eat decent food in decent amounts, we'd all be better off! I'm a vegan who plays online PS3 games with my friends for an hour or two a day, I spend hours on the computer each day, but while I do those activities I'm also on my exercycle, cruising along at 35Kph, I do about 66KM a day. It doesnt take any real involvement any more than a fat ass sitting in a computer chair.
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Im so glad I started, its great exercise, easy to do, and I feel great. Then again, I am Vegan, so you have to expect everything I do to be crazy!
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Build it, they will come!
Im not responsible if trillions of USD are spent promoting cycling, building bike lanes, and then people dont use them
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The change left in your pocket after the liberals in NYC take even more of your income to "spread the wealth".
Better yet, just "spread em" so they can insert the giant phalice
If I were a rich man...
I'd see my wife, my Golde,
looking like a rich man's wife
with a proper double-chin!
Weight gain used to be a sign of wealth: it meant that you weren't so poor as to be starving. I'm not so sure that's something that we should bring back.
Tax free:
Out of state shopping? check
DVDs? check
Games? check
Now if TPB would just figure out how to let me download junk food I'll be all set.
Where teachers make upwards of $100k before they retire -- and $75k afterward. Until death.
Where state troopers make upwards of $60k or more with full benefits.
I'm sure there are other examples, these are just the two I know about.
Here's an experiment: try moving to a smallish city or largish town in New York State (outside NYC/Westchester). Try finding a job at a private company that pays the rates listed above, with similar benefits and retirement package.
Good luck.
Most people in (upstate) NY are making in the $30k range, and paying 30% in taxes to support the public employee unions. No wonder we're losing (by some estimates) 500,000 residents a year.
C-x C-c
This really fries my clams! [rant]It's one more example of everyone just rolling over and accepting the use of taxation to try to achieve some perceived social benefit through using taxation to modify behavior. This is the reason that is put forth, and it's ridiculous!! Has tobacco taxation slowed the use of cigarettes? No! Has alcohol taxation slowed the use of alcohol consumption? No! And what business is it of the government's anyway? If I want to be a fat, cigarette puffing, drunken sot, is there a "cost to society"? Only if I hurt others or try to get government help for my problems. There are laws which punish and ultimately remove people from general circulation if they hurt other people, and I certainly don't expect the government to take care of me because I'm sick. Who ever said *that* was the government's job anyway? The more you expect someone to take care of you, the more vested interest they have in preventing you from doing things that might be expensive to them. Everyone, wake up!! This is not okay!! It's never been okay! Taxation is for paying for government services, not for trying to achieve some social aim through behavior modification!! THIS MAKES ME CRAZY!!![/rant] Okay. I feel better now. You all can go back to your government-approved lives now. I apologize for the outburst. It won't happen again. If it does, I'm sure there will be a 2:00 AM knock on my door.
Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.
The kids are fat because we keep them so safe. Look at any playground none of the fun equipment remain. No merry-go-rounds, short lame slides and swings. monkey bars are small and lame. => Fat children
Actually, they are sneaky about the added sugar. Bottles marked "100% juice" will have no added sugars. If you look closely at other "juices" you will notice they say "juice cocktail," "juice drink," "juice product," or "contains juice." Sometimes it will be more like "JUICE *cough*cocktail*cough*." I believe they are required by law not to straight up call it "juice" if they add anything to it. You can just barely make it out in this picture.
Might as well just tax the parents for bad parenting. And as far as money grabbing, far be it from us to cut back expenses, or spending, or bailouts that endlessly generate more debt and drive hyperinflation...