July 16, 2003
A Tax On Fat (People)?
Last month we told you about some of our most ridiculous ideas for what health nannies might one day propose to combat the "obesity epidemic" -- including excise taxes on extra large pants, and banning the sale of certain foods to fat people. Now a New York Times columnist has one-upped us by proposing to tax fat people -- and he's serious:
Collect a lump-sum tax from every American and put the proceeds into a reward pool. Each year, anyone who wanted to could go to an existing government office for a simple series of measurements. People who registered normal weights throughout the year would receive cash rewards from the pool ... There are about 300 million Americans in total, so setting the lump-sum tax at $100 a year would yield $30 billion for the reward pool -- enough to reward about 120 million Americans of normal weight with checks for $250.Food nanny Kelly Brownell likes to quote from Gandhi: "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. And then you win." Unfortunately, The New York Times isn't laughing at a proposal even more radical than Brownell's twinkie tax. It's a sign of how far public opinion has shifted in favor of the food police.
