Wednesday, August 12, 2026 Strategy, technology, media, and social systems

I Think

Sorin Adam Matei

Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.

Our modern dilemma: Does poverty make people obese, or is it the other way around?

Two mice; the mouse on the left has more fat s...
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Slate leads the uprising against the idea of taxing soda and fat (on people).

In my last column “Let Them Drink Water!”, I suggested that a tax on sweetened soft drinks would move the nation toward an apartheid of pleasure in which the poor must drink from the faucet while the rich enjoy superpremium fruit juice. I also argued that the soda tax discriminates on economic grounds, since rates of soft drink consumption tend to be highest in poor, nonwhite communities. But supporters of the measure counter that these very communities would benefit most from drinking less soda and that revenue from a regressive fat tax could be spent on laudable progressive goals—like universal health care.

via Does poverty make people obese, or is it the other way around? – By Daniel Engber – Slate Magazine.

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