Some argue that obesity in today's society is to some extent due to the availability of fast food and that governments should place a tax on fast food to reduce fast food consumption.
Do you agree or disagree?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your knowledge or experience.
Obesity is one of the major current issues widely discussed on how to mitigate the situation. One proposed solution is to impose tax on fast food because the easy access to fast food is considered accelerating the unhealthy diet. Although it might reduce the amount of fast food consumed, I disagree with this measure because of unfairness, limited effect and unproportioned cost to benefits.
First of all, fast food tax is againt the fair principle of taxation. It cannot be justified that only fast food is taxed while other cooked food not. In addition, it is nearly impossible to define fast food clearly for tax purpose, which can incite lobbying and bribing by related companies who try to set advantageous rules to them.
Second of all, people choose fast food for various reasons, not only for the low price. Sandwich stands serve meals quickly for busy business people in the morning rush. Pizza is everyone's go-to food for a gathering at home. Burger shops are a cozy place to hung out for teenagers after school. Increase in the price may not decrease their fast food consumption that much.
Finally, countless work will spring up when fast food tax is put into practice. Cashiers need to distinguish fast food from the others. Accountants need to handle invoices with different tax rates. These additional work has already seen in Japan since the introduction of the consumption tax and the reduced tax rate, which is applied to daily necessities, including take-away food.
In conclusion, I'd oppose the fast food tax as a means for fighting obesity.
