NYC Major Michael Bloomberg has proposed a ban on sugary drinks over 16oz at restaurants, street vendors, sports venues, and movie theaters. The goal is to help lower the $4 billion a year the New York City Health Department spends on health care for obese residents. Yes, $4 BILLION a year just on overweight people. It’s so bad that 5,000 people have died from obesity related issues and will soon exceed the number of smoking deaths. Too bad this bill will do nothing to solve the problem.
“For Every One Problem The Government Thinks It Solves It Actually Creates Two More” – Ludwig Von Mises
I came across that quote a couple of years ago when I was starting to learn about free market economics and why Government being involved with anything, especially health care is a bad thing. The test is if you can think of at least two problems that are now created due to the solution the Govt thought up. So lets see what this B- student can come up with.
- Free Refills – Don’t most restaurants do this already? I’m sure the movie theaters and sports venues can implement something like this for an extra $.50.
- Buy Unlimited Amounts Of 12oz Cans – Ok, so I can’t buy a 16oz bottle of pop but I can still buy three 12oz cans of pop, right?
Thats it. I found two problems that arise from this. What’s dumber is those two things were already available to get around the 16oz rule. No creative marketing techniques even need to be thought up. This is another example of the Government trying to give their best intentions to “help” the people out but unfortunately it does nothing. There really is only one solution to help lower the $4 billion in costs that the New York City Health Department spends on obese residents and that is to eliminate the New York City Health Department.
What blows my mind is to think that they are realizing how big of a problem they have now at $4 billion a year. I wonder if it was as big (no pun intended) of a problem at $1 billion or even $10 million a year. The one thing I’ve been starting to pick up on is whenever Government has a problem the only solution is “We need more money. If we only had another $100 million we’d be able to fix the problem.” What about the previous $100 million?
I wonder how quickly things would change if there wasn’t money available to the obese residents for hospital visits or pills that don’t do anything? I’m guessing the people would be forced to change their habits. There are hundreds of free articles on the internet that show how to cook and how to make basic workout routines that maybe only involve walking. Isn’t that how Jared from Subway did it? They wouldn’t even have to spend money buying the P90X workout or Shakeology to get their weight under control. Just walk. Problem solved.
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