Hungary introduces "fat tax" on unhealthy foods {Gadling}

Jul 17th 2011 2:13PM The government already tells us what we should and should not feed our families - this is nothing new.

In the US, the government highly subsidizes corn and soybeans, causing products made from those items to be significantly cheaper than others (chips, soda, prepackaged goods, etc). That's why it is cheaper, calorie for calorie, for people to buy chips rather than broccoli, or soda rather than milk. What do you expect people to do when they're living pay check to pay check and trying to feed their families? They're going to buy the cheapest foods they can to fill their bellies - no matter how unhealthy. It's hypocritical to then turn around and tax those items deemed "unhealthy" when those are the items subsidized in the first place! The government would do better to subsidize growers of broccoli, carrots, and kale (and other healthy veggies) as well as fresh fruits to keep the cost of those products down, than to slap a tax on anything with "too much sugar, fat, or salt".