Advising people that they can lose 15-25 pounds in a year if they “skip one regular soda per day” and drink water or diet pop instead doesn’t work. Jacking up the price does:
During a four-week period when the price of a 20-ounce bottle of soda went up by 45 cents—which amounted to a 35% price increase—sales fell by 26%…. Prices for full-calorie soda went back to normal after the test period, but sales ticked back up only slightly. Then researchers posted fliers around the cafeteria that said: “Lose up to 15-25 pounds in one year and decrease your risk of diabetes by 1/2. Just skip one regular soda per day. For zero calories, try diet soda or water.”
Those fliers remained up for four weeks, but sales of bottled soda didn’t fall during that period—in fact, they rose slightly. Finally, the researchers reinstated the 45-cent soda tax while keeping the fliers up for another four weeks. That cut into sales of bottled soda, prompting a 36% decline compared with the weeks before the prices first changed.
The researchers concluded that taxes can work—only the price increase had a statistically significant effect on sales of sugared soda.
I don’t think that the people that drink soda should be taxed as a means to help support the health care and/or insurance industries (I assume that’s the ultimate point of this article). The people that fall into higher risk categories should pay more for health care because they’re so much more likely to use it more. These are people that are obese, smokers, or those that cannot pass a basic physical exam of some sort.
“Skip one regular soda per day”? How many F-ing soda’s are people drinking?
I don’t think it’s new information…however, it seems it must be said: IF YOU EAT AND DRINK LESS CRAP YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT.
…and AGAIN. You’re punishing rational people for the behavior of fools. AND…how do you know that they are consuming less sugar because they’re drinking less soda. MAYBE they’re changing to Capri sun, kool aid, lemonaid, iced tea with sugar….my GOD please stop trying to treat me like a child with your fucking patriarchical laws.
Actually just switching to iced tea (homebrewed of course, not the Lipton/Nestea junk you find in convenience stores) has made a huge difference for me personally. You still get the nice little caffeinated pick me up that pop offers you, and you can make it as strong or weak as you need it to. Unsweetened iced tea is like 5-10 calories per 16 ounces. Even if you add a bit of sugar to sweeten it a bit, it’s still way better for you.
Any economist would rip this study. A tax is something that lasts over a long period of time presumably. This is only a temporary price increase. People tend to get used to price increases and then do what they want. I’d guess this would be a relatively temporary change in behaviour unless the plan is to jack up the prices by a third every time people’s consumption increases again. Then at some point, the prices might be so high it’d be considered a luxury good and the consumption would be down permanently. Except for the black market sodas that would be sold on the streets or made at home. Or people would switch to things like juice and Powerade, both not much better for your health. (In fact, juices are generally higher in calories per ounce.)