Idea of the Day

A Junk Food Consumption Tax.

Is the problem that we can't access good food? Or is it that food that's terrible for us is too readily available and cheap?

Perhaps the solution to this is a junk food tax. Ezra Klein thinks its unlikely to work because food is already so ridiculously cheap you'd need to jack up the price by too much., and points to this RAND-affiliated study as evidence.

Comments

[Aaron]

Hasn't it been brought up before that this operates as a sort of tax on the poor? All through high school, I ate crap because I had no job and only a small allowance for food. I chose the crap, knowingly, because I didn't have the money to eat healthier.

It's not a problem that terrible food is too readily available and cheap. It's a problem that GOOD food is NOT readily available and is NOT cheap. You don't solve the latter by jacking up the former.