San Antonio vs Chicago city employees... (Howe: city hall, crime, how much)

[Merovee]

...in a wellness competition?

Appearing Monday at City Hall with representative of the Coke, Pepsi and Dr. Pepper companies, Emanuel said he doesn’t want to pursue cola serving size limits like those recently adopted in New York or to approve a proposed tax on sugary drinks that has popped up at City Hall.

Instead, Chicago will compete against the city workers from San Antonio for a $5 million grant from the American Beverage Association to see which workforce is healthier.

Chicago opts for wellness competition over soda tax - Chicago Tribune

Julian Castro had this to say:

Everyone has a role to play in making our communities healthier. Here in San Antonio, we're proud to be working with the beverage industry on programs to help achieve that goal.

San Antonio's New Vending Machines May Scold Your Soda Choice | KUT News

So in the end we will get new soda machines but we will probably not see a local soda tax or limits on size here in SA since our city government would rather take cash from the beverage industry.

Instead we limit progress and tax our own health care system and the lifespans of our own citizens, wrong choice Mayor Castro.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by Merovee

...in a wellness competition?

Chicago opts for wellness competition over soda tax - Chicago Tribune

Julian Castro had this to say:

San Antonio's New Vending Machines May Scold Your Soda Choice | KUT News

So in the end we will get new soda machines but we will probably not see a local soda tax or limits on size here in SA since our city government would rather take cash from the beverage industry.

Instead we limit progress and tax our own health care system and the lifespans of our own citizens, wrong choice Mayor Castro.

This all political and Mayor Castro knows who his constituents are and how mad they would be. I'm not sure why anyone would tax personal responsibility unless they are going tax all aspects of it. Personally I'm against taxing any aspect either because I know all aspects won’t be taxed nor should they be.

[RJMorris82]

Is it really the government's job to make sure their citizens are healthy? Everyone knows soda is not healthy for you, I stopped drinking it when i was 16 and am now a water and tea junky (not sweet tea, christ thats worse than soda).

I'm tired of everyone looking to the government to fix any problems, if you want to make a difference don't look to the government to do anything, do it yourself. If you feel that Soda is bad, start a foundation pushing for healthier drink choices, by backing products that are healthy.

I hate it when people or government try to tell me what I can or cannot do with my own personal health choices. I personally think smoking cigarettes is stupid, I only have an issue when someone smokes around me and endangers my health when I don't smoke. However, I don't think we should ban cigarettes, just do what has been done, limit where you can smoke so others aren't impacted. Soda only impacts the person drinking it, and if people want to be stupid it is not my job or anyone elses job to tell them they can't.

Do I enjoy the occasional Soda, yes I do, sometimes a nice cold Mexican Coke is a great quencher after a hard day of yardwork (yes I know Soda makes you thirstier, but its just the taste and feeling). But it's no one responsibility but their own to moderate and take care of themselves.

[Merovee]

Originally Posted by RJMorris82

Is it really the government's job to make sure their citizens are healthy? Everyone knows soda is not healthy for you, I stopped drinking it when i was 16 and am now a water and tea junky (not sweet tea, christ thats worse than soda).

I'm tired of everyone looking to the government to fix any problems, if you want to make a difference don't look to the government to do anything, do it yourself. If you feel that Soda is bad, start a foundation pushing for healthier drink choices, by backing products that are healthy.

I hate it when people or government try to tell me what I can or cannot do with my own personal health choices. I personally think smoking cigarettes is stupid, I only have an issue when someone smokes around me and endangers my health when I don't smoke. However, I don't think we should ban cigarettes, just do what has been done, limit where you can smoke so others aren't impacted. Soda only impacts the person drinking it, and if people want to be stupid it is not my job or anyone elses job to tell them they can't.

Do I enjoy the occasional Soda, yes I do, sometimes a nice cold Mexican Coke is a great quencher after a hard day of yardwork (yes I know Soda makes you thirstier, but its just the taste and feeling). But it's no one responsibility but their own to moderate and take care of themselves.

1. The same thing that was done with cigarettes should be done with soda, namely taxing them and using that money to not only pay for the higher health costs that product incurs on our society but also to pay for awareness campaigns. It worked! It worked so good that people smoke less here. What they did was go to former third world countries and sell there where people are not as educated so buy into these products.

2. You should be able to enjoy your coke but it should cost twice as much or more than it does now with the extra taxes put on it.

3. I was at the park once and a parent told their toddler to be quiet and stop being fussy or they wouldn't get soda later, as if soda is a reward, instead of the punishment it really is, a lifetime sentence of diabetes for the poor toddler, we will have to pay for their scooter and wait for them to get out of our way at the store, a family will eventually lose a member years before they should have, and a business in Texas will suffer from loss of productivity as will the state overall. Soda should in the least be similar to alcohol where only adults can buy it and maybe even drink it...

4. I have no problem with the government influencing society, someone will, we shouldn't just leave it to people out to make a profit as we do now, in the case of cigarettes we didn't, this is no different.

[RJMorris82]

Here is the thing though, with cigarettes, it's not just harmful to the smoker, it's harmful to the environment and anyone who is around them. It's easier to justify putting taxes on something that is harmful to a lot of things. Soda is only harmful to the drinker, not anyone around them.

[txtea]

I agree.
The government has no business trying to restrict what we eat or drink, as long as it isn' t illegal to consume.
Just try and make Big Red illegal around here.......there will be a revolt!

[Merovee]

Good points but I remain in disagreement with both of them as soda does harm more than just the drinker, it takes a toll on society including fiscally (see point 3 above), and one day there will be regulation (maybe not making Big Red illegal though).

Don't really want to rehash this argument but did want to let others know that Castro sold out us progressives.

Still in a way progress is about speed and not direction and what we are doing now will begin to change the culture because the message that soda is bad for you will be on these new machines in some form or reminder. This is how tobacco was curtailed via the provision of information.

[RJMorris82]

I see why you want to do it, I understand the value it would have, but it always creates slippery slopes into what they will regulate next. I have a good idea what is healthy for me and what I should eat and drink, the last thing I would want is basically the government coming in and overtaxing everything. It would help the economy (well not really because the entitlement programs need to stop), but so would legalizing marijuana and taxing it like cigarettes and alcohol.

[TrapperL]

Yeah, we need to ban sodas but as long as we are building this police state, we need to ban computer games that makes kids fat because they get zero exercise. It should be the law that parents spend at least 2 hours per day with the kids they brought into this world to teach them to be model citizens. That should reduce crime by a lot. We should ban television as this is where the lazy families spend most of their time. No TV means folks will be outside moving around and getting exercise and actually get to know the neighbors. Everyone should be in bed by 10PM and wake up at 6AM. That's the 8 hours you need to be healthy. No more burning the midnight oil causing health issues. We should ban all clothing stores that sell fashion of any kind. We should all dress the same like they do in N Korea. Just think how much cheaper it would be to dress yer kids. Every person that has a car should be evaluated for the NEED to have a car and if they don't need one, it should be confiscated so as to get us off of foreign oil. We should evaluate the need for those that are retired. If you're not working, you're consuming space, you need to be put down. Just think, there would be no need for cancer hospitals or anything but a corner clinic and would save billions if not trillions in Medicare, Social Security, and Odumama care. We need to make any and all candy illegal as sugar is the spice of the devil and is no good for you. We need to make coffee illegal unless it is caffeine free. But the good folks here in San Antonio will win this contest hands down. WE don't pay our folks enough to be able to buy BS groceries. You just have to have the want to work for the city because they don't pay squat.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by TrapperL

Yeah, we need to ban sodas but as long as we are building this police state, we need to ban computer games that makes kids fat because they get zero exercise. It should be the law that parents spend at least 2 hours per day with the kids they brought into this world to teach them to be model citizens. That should reduce crime by a lot. We should ban television as this is where the lazy families spend most of their time. No TV means folks will be outside moving around and getting exercise and actually get to know the neighbors. Everyone should be in bed by 10PM and wake up at 6AM. That's the 8 hours you need to be healthy. No more burning the midnight oil causing health issues. We should ban all clothing stores that sell fashion of any kind. We should all dress the same like they do in N Korea. Just think how much cheaper it would be to dress yer kids. Every person that has a car should be evaluated for the NEED to have a car and if they don't need one, it should be confiscated so as to get us off of foreign oil. We should evaluate the need for those that are retired. If you're not working, you're consuming space, you need to be put down. Just think, there would be no need for cancer hospitals or anything but a corner clinic and would save billions if not trillions in Medicare, Social Security, and Odumama care. We need to make any and all candy illegal as sugar is the spice of the devil and is no good for you. We need to make coffee illegal unless it is caffeine free. But the good folks here in San Antonio will win this contest hands down. WE don't pay our folks enough to be able to buy BS groceries. You just have to have the want to work for the city because they don't pay squat.

+1000

This why I feel our progressive friends logic is flawed. If we are going to tax soda because it makes you fat then we need to tax EVERYTHING that makes you fat and we need to tax the hell out of inactivity of the individual fat person.