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- #101
If your body fat % is above 33% as a man and 40% as a woman you should have to pay a 1% medicare surcharge.
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Society/Culture Should the obese population have to pay a fat tax?
- Thread starter Jade's
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need to shakespeare venice shylock a pound of fat from each fatty boomba then you can make your Fight Club soap with it like they do for the liposuction medi waste
Pie eyed
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Yes.
Fast food should be taxed exactly as cigarettes and alcohol, but with all the money going to health rather than pollie junkets and fashion scholarships for Liberal party members kids.
- May 21, 2014
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- Banned
- #104
Agree. 100% of it should go to education and towards fresh food promotion
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- #105
Wankbat would have benefitted from that at school time.
Most people are fat. It would be political suicide for any party that put it forward.
Graeme Wood vs Windies at peak on WACA. Brave. As is above sentence!
Because it would be near impossible to regulate. You'd have to tax half the supermarket aisles and every restaurant. As others have said, eat too much of anything and it's bad for you.
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- #111
That's why you tax the fat person themselves.
"If your body fat % is above 33% as a man and 40% as a woman you should have to pay a 1% medicare surcharge."
As I said above, most people are overweight. You reckon they'd vote in a party that wants to tax them for it?
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- #113
Yes. I think they would. It would be great incentive to lose weight.
Will be interesting to see if a politician puts it forward then.
Who'll put it forward? The Liberals, with Joe Hockey pulling out his wallet at the press conference and laying a few $100's on the table? The ALP and their equal collection of overweight MPs? Big Clive? Or Sarah Hansen-Young is going to say 'I'm here today as I can hug a tree, but too fat to climb one'?
The only way anything that is so controversial like this could get up is for the major parties to have a bipartisan committee that would commission an independent review. And that's really going to happen in today's environment. When a $7 surcharge is painted as destroying Medicare, I'm sure Shorten would be only too pleased to paint the government as trying to rip hundreds of dollars a year from 'honest working families' whilst insulting them to boot. It's a me-me-me 'everyone is awesome' society these days, where no one is allowed to be criticised.
The thing is that not every Obese person is 'unhealthy' & a drain on the health system. Obesity is a risk factor, not a catagory of illness.
Also I see quite normal weight people who have diabetes, COAD & other chronic disorders. They tend see the Drs & nurses quite regularly.
Smoking, alcohol & drugs are a bigger problem IMO. These tend to drain the medical system as well as police & the courts time. Violence is strongly attached to these substances.
Not every person who smokes or takes drugs is a health burden either. But they are FAR more likely to be. The same with obesity. You are not guaranteed to have heart problems but I wouldn't bet against it.
People are free to smoke, but pay a tax to do it.
People are free to overeat. but should pay a tax to do it.
Pie eyed
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Most people used to drink and smoke?
Most people drive cars too fast and have a beer or two too many....
They are paying more for food and in restaurants so that's extra money going into society.
Seems like a small issue at the moment that I doubt any politician would touch. You'd piss off a lot of people - much more than the 10% or so who smoke. Life expectancy in Australia has steadily been going up for years. Perhaps look at it if you start seeing a negative trend.
Seems like a small issue at the moment that I doubt any politician would touch. You'd piss off a lot of people - much more than the 10% or so who smoke. Life expectancy in Australia has steadily been going up for years. Perhaps look at it if you start seeing a negative trend.
I'll happily eat my words if I'm wrong. I'm not particularly up-to-date with Australian politics. Does it look like something that is on the cards? Who is pushing for it?
telsor
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Sexist!
Takeaway food is taxed GST. Self prepared fresh food is GST free.
Anyway, how would you levy a 'fat tax'? What are the costs of implementing it? Would you need to employ more public servants to measure & weigh the population? etc etc
And cigarettes have GST on them as well so anything extra is pointless right?
It's why I prefer a tax on fat food rather then people. The complience cost would be high for people. Food is easier.
Although a case could be made for some sort of scheduled medical checkups for everyone. Probably would save money in the long run due to prevention.
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- #125
I think it should be the individual but others think food. I assume the food tax would be based on a Sugar % or Fat %.
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