Of all the substances people can consume in this world, there's one that stands far above the rest, one that invigorates the senses, refreshes the mind and replenishes the body.
That, of course, is water. But a close second is Coke. As in, Coca-Cola.
There is nothing else so rewarding and so necessary to my day as a sip from that cool aluminum can.
Sure, Coke is a heartless major corporation that tacitly supports the killing of its union organizers by barely monitoring their Coke factories in Latin America, but let's be honest here—it tastes really good.
Unfortunately, the state of Wisconsin thinks it has the right to infringe on such a basic necessity.
A bill in the state Senate, sponsored mainly by Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona Grove, intends to put a tax on all soft drinks sold in Wisconsin as soon as possible.
So far the bill has a total of 18 co-sponsors, all of whom support adding a 21-cent tax to this life-giving substance in order to help provide money to dentists who provide dental care to people under the Medical Assistance Program. And even worse, some of the money from this tax would go toward public dental education.
Um, can anyone say revenge of the nerds? ""My Mom told me not to drink soda, it's bad for my teeth. Let's punish those who drink it and go eat carrots.""
Please leave me alone. Taxing people for drinking soda has nothing to do with dentists who provide dental care to people who can't otherwise afford it.
I can understand certain lines of thinking—for instance, if someone is a smoker, they should have to pay more for health insurance. Smoking affects non-smokers. But do Coke drinkers run up to protein shake fiends and rub corn syrup on their teeth?
No.
Unless a clear connection is made between people who constantly drink soda and people who can't afford their own dental care, this is just an example of lawmakers targeting people simply because they have a habit that health-nut logic tells us to avoid.
Last time I checked, we were a capitalist society, which generally entails people buying goods that are priced according to rules of supply and demand.
The government coming in, pushing its spectacles upward on its nose and whining, ""Ah, you really shouldn't drink soda, we're gonna have to slap your wrist for that one"" is completely against our way of life.
The government taxing goods based upon the implication that they're ""harmful"" is extremely concerning. It started with cigarettes, but what's next: a tax on Snickers, a tax on porn, a tax on fast food, a tax on communist reading materials?
The government has no right passing judgments on who should pay more for certain products, unless we are willing to give up our rightful designation as a capitalist society.
And at the end of the day, there is a strong possibility that people will just buy juice or coffee—which are just as likely to ruin your teeth.
If it turns out that the demand for soda pop is fairly elastic, which I think it is, the likely result of this tax is that people will buy fewer sodas in Wisconsin, and the dentists won't get the money they want anyway.
If poor people can't afford proper dental care, it's up to everyone in our state to help out—it's not the state Senate's place to target subsets of the populace whose purchasing habits cheese them off.
