The proposed ban on super-sized soft drinks creates a curious notion about what the Mayor’s really going after by banning sugary drinks in larger containers when he admits that multiple containers could be carried to get around the proposed ban according to the article in “The New York Times” written by Michael M. Grynbaum entitled “New York Plans to Ban Sale of Big Sizes of Sugary Drinks” that appeared online dated 5/30/12 at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/31/nyregion/bloomberg-plans-a-ban-on-large-sugared-drinks.html?pagewanted=1.
THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS OPINIONS. More interesting is the lack of a limit on alcoholic beverages, arguably a greater threat to public health under which authority Bloomberg is butting his nose into people’s business. Nor is there a ban on artificially sweetened drinks that arguably threaten health when taken in large quantities because of certain illnesses attributed to artificial sweeteners which the Mayor is actually steering people towards.
Will parents whose children suffer illness traceable to artificial sweeteners come after the Mayor?
Certainly the Mayor is smart enough to know that obesity is based on calories in versus calories spent. Why not ban serving any single meal in New York that exceeds a specified number of calories? Do not rich French foods and sauces used in New York’s most expensive restaurants exceed reasonable calories for meals that could detrimentally impact the health of dining New Yorkers and their guests? And the calories in alcohol?
Ah and the Mayor’s age is showing. How will he address the liquid or powdery sugar packets or additives available for purchase that can be added to flavor water? Will establishments that sell those no longer be permitted to also sell water? Will they have to have some reasonable distance between the water and the scrumptious selection of concentrated sweetener additives available that will become only dearer to consumers as they seek to replace the evil soda?
Perhaps the law will backfire worse than the Mayor ever imagined. After all he’s not outlawing liter sizes of soda, maybe people will just begin to drink more. Or will those be illegal to have opened in the streets much as open container laws ban open alcohol in the streets?
Will employers be able to inquire as to your drinking habits…? That is your sweetened drinking habits before hiring you? You soda drinkers are not a protected class.
The approach is an interesting one seeking to regulate quantity rather than any other aspect of soda. It is interesting because there is no limit on how much of a specific fried food can be purchased or how many gallons of ice cream can be purchased or even how many sandwiches can be purchased. (And will a pitcher of soda be illegalized before a pitcher of beer?)
Instead in order to find areas where QUANTITY is regulated we need to approach the criminal codes. Specific amounts of marijuana become a more serious offense and include additional charges. The purchase of too much cold medicine is a flag for DEA agents and so on and so forth.
It is in my opinion clear that the Mayor in fact is trying to gently convince the public that it is IMMORAL to consume too much soda through his efforts to support regulating soda and the first step in the campaign is to declare, “There oughta be a law.” (By implication it is immoral and a character flaw to be overweight.)
Much like smokers who are consuming a legal but unfavored product, soda drinkers will have to hide out in their homes to feed their unhealthy vices. It’s remarkable the lottery isn’t so well regulated there currently being no limit on the amount of tickets one can purchase even if that’s taking money out of your family’s budget.
The Mayor, I believe does not care whether such a regulation is passed.
Soon only bad guys in movies will smoke or drink soda or be fat while the whiskey slewing bullies of movies past will survive. Only the lower classes will be portrayed as drinking soda while the upper classes protect their babies from the dirtied masses whom someday they will pay minimum wage to wash their floors. Teen movies will show up-and-coming stars getting together and indulging in drinking soda crammed and hidden beneath their books to get past parents.
Mayor Bloomberg is not tackling obesity. He is tackling soda. And for that you have to figure out why beyond the obvious which is that he doesn’t drink soda very much.
