Has pop gone flat?

Interesting article over at The Wichita Eagle.

“I believe soda is the next tobacco,” said Barry Popkin, director of the University of North Carolina’s Interdisciplinary Obesity Center and author of “The World Is Fat,” published this year.

Soda drinkers haven’t achieved pariah status like smokers before them, but proposed sugar taxes and social pressure to be healthy can put a damper on doing the Dew — and even some in the growing ranks of diet pop drinkers are feeling soda shame.

Although I am NOT a proponent of taxing beverages of any kind, the article does raise a good question. When consumers drink soda excessively, which leads to obesity and other health problems, and do not have health insurance coverage, can the rest of the taxpayers be expected to foot the healthcare bill? Would it be wise to target a main source of obesity and spread the tax burden over those who are consuming soda?

These are all good questions that I think, from a tax perspective, go back to whether you think the government should have a hand in healthcare and what kind of ‘distribution of wealth’ should occur.

I recently drove past the Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and saw a group of 5 or 6 staff members smoking across the street (so they could be off hospital property), looking like total outcasts. Part of me said “Good, they should quit smoking anyway and get the message” but the other part felt bad for them.

Since soda doesn’t have “second hand effects”, I do not think that soda drinkers will go the way of the tobacco smoker, but there will probably be an increasing social stigma to consumers of the sugary beverage (and the diet aspartame replacement).