Tax Pop

School officials in the Canadian province of British Columbia want the government to put a sin tax on soda pop in order to discourage consumption. They say kids who drink a pop a day gain almost 15 pounds a year. This is all part of the obesity battle we see being joined all over North America.

The problem I have with this is it blames kids and pretends the system is not at fault. In B.C., governments of all political stripes have reduced funding to schools. School boards have diverted money from sports to other endeavors. Teachers have demanded smaller class sizes along with higher salaries, which translates into less money for sports and physical education.

Most schools in B.C. have eliminated their phys ed programs.

When I was a teenager, I drank a soda pop a day, freely ate candy bars and baked treats. I could barely hold on to my weight. When I was 20 I was five foot 10 and 125 pounds. Of my two sons., one gained weight on pop and the other did not.

There was only one difference among all of us. The level of physical activity. If you do nothing, a soda pop a day is stored as fat. If you are really active, it is used as energy.

Taxing pop allows government, school boards and teachers to blame parents and kids. To do otherwise, means accepting the fact they are also at fault for the current situation because they elimninated and de-emphasized sports and PhysEd.

 

I just thought they were just looking out for the kids weight.