Rare has a great piece today that pokes holes in all the silly reasons Philadelphia bureaucrats gave for imposing a ridiculous soda tax. The authors name is Glen Jacobs. He’s a libertarian activist. He’s also better known by another name:
Kane.
The former WWE champion is no slouch when it comes to politics. He writes:
The crack in the Liberty Bell got wider last week when the Philadelphia City Council passed a measure to levy a tax on soft drinks.
Although the tax was sold as a “sugary drinks tax,” it applies not only to regular soft drinks, but also to diet soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, and juice containing less than 50 percent fruit juice.
And it is huge! As Patrick Gleason noted on Forbes.com, while the current excise tax on a twelve pack of beer is nine cents, the new soft drink tax raises the cost of a twelve pack of Coke by $2.16!
Unlike other cities that have introduced soft drink taxes as a public health measure, Mayor Jim Kenney openly admitted that Philly’s soda pop tax was designed to raise revenue for the city. In a press conference following the vote, Kenney claimed, “this is the beginning of a process of changing the narrative of poverty in our city.”
Actually, this is the same old narrative that we’ve heard time and again: give the government enough money and it can solve every problem. In this case, Kenney wants to increase funding for education with the revenue raised from the soft drink tax. In reality, Kenney is “helping” the poor by taking their money away from them, a fact that prompted even Bernie Sanders to oppose the new measure.
Proponents of Philadelphia’s soft drink tax claim that it will raise $91 million a year. What they are not taking into account is that soft drink consumption rates are declining nationwide. In addition, such a drastic price increase is going to dramatically reduce sales. So the city faces a double whammy of a market trend exacerbated by government policy. The result is sure to be budgetary shortfalls.
The whole article is worth a read(link). Here’s hoping Jacobs defense of liberty encourages more free market loving celebrities to come out of the shadows.
AAN Staff
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