Baylen Linnekin Pours Cold Water on San Francisco’s Proposed Soda Tax

Last month the San Francisco city
council introduced a proposal to tax soda at a rate of two cents
per ounce. The tax, which would have to be approved by voters,
would add a whopping $1.44 to the cost of a six-pack of soda. The
council liked the idea so much that they soon introduced a
competing proposal to tax soda at exactly the same rate. But, as
Baylen Linnekin points out, Research also shows soda taxes don’t
work. For example, a 2010 study published in the Archives of
Internal Medicine suggested that even an enormous soda tax of 40
percent would not make people healthier. Maybe that’s why lawmakers
and voters elsewhere have defeated and repealed such soda-targeting
schemes.

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