THEY know how YOU should live

Of course THEY do. 

And THEY will make sure WE live the way THEY want.  It doesn't matter anymore what YOU or I may want or think.  OUR thoughts, wishes, dreams, yearnings and freedoms to choose how to live are of little consequence.  That part of the Constitution that guarantees life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (and property) ---- t's not about You.  It obviously means Constitutuional guarantees are for THEM, our betters.

Even if you think Seattle's new sugar tax is a good idea, or you don't consume sugary drinks, or you think this is too silly to worry about, then which good idea of someone else's will you finally object to? When will government intrude into YOUR life?  It really isn't a matter of if anymore - an unrestrained government that is already involved in so many aspects of our private lives can easily convince us that just one more coercion is OK.  And then one more.  

Do you still not think of politicians and the vast government machine sees itself as a separate and elite class?  Take a look at how Seattle is treating diet soda.  I assume the Seattle City Council is highly educated and well paid so they don't see the conflict.  And it appears the Council is giving themselves the tax money for their own projects, though personnel costs will take the first bite.  

Here's a radical idea - make the soda tax "equal" and throw it out!  Don't YOU have use for the extra cash?  And save the taxpayer the cost of a new administrative division within the City's finance and code departments.

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A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored.  

Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. 

-- John Adams, Letter to Abigale Adams, 1775

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Seattle Times

Seattle will tax sugary soda — but not diet

Diet soda won’t be taxed, and the council also chose to exempt baby formula, medicine, weight-loss drinks and 100 percent fruit juice.

Sports drinks such as Gatorade, energy drinks such as Red Bull and fruit drinks such as Sunny D all will be taxed, along with syrups used in soda-fountain pop.

Note about fruit juice: Livestrong.com
According to Dr. Andrea Sanigorski of Deakin University in Australia, fruit juice could actually be playing a part in childhood obesity. Many parents believe that because they’re giving their kids “healthy” juice, they don’t have to limit the amount. The truth is that fruit juice contains a high amount of sugar in the form of fructose. Your body cannot distinguish between sugar from fruits and sugar from candy. Once you’ve consumed sugar, it’s all processed the same way. To avoid health problems later in life, be aware of what juices contain the most sugar so you can moderate how much you drink.

Grape Juice:  A 12 ounce glass of grape juice contains over 58 grams of sugars. This is 20 grams more than a 12 ounces can of Coca-Cola. At 240 calories per 12 ounces, it’s also the fruit with the highest caloric value.
Apple Juice:  A 12 ounce serving contains 39 grams of sugar -- just 1 gram less than in a glass of soda. That’s about 10 teaspoons of sugar.
Orange Juice:   At 33 grams per 12 ounce serving, it falls slightly behind Coca-Cola. However, a glass of soda contains about 145 calories, while a glass of orange juice has 165 calories.
Boxed Juices:  Boxed juices are rarely 100 percent juice and instead have added flavorings, colorings and sugars. Juices made from concentrate are usually higher in sugar, as they sometimes contain high-fructose corn syrup or other artificial sweeteners.  Compare labels.  

Metric Conversion:  
1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar volume = 12.5 grams of granulated sugar mass


Wine Folly (Wine chart)
The sugar in wine primarily comes from the fruit sugars in wine grapes (fructose and glucose). Of course, there are a few instances where cheap wine producers will use sugar or grape concentrate to sweeten a wine.  
Note:  125 g = 4 oz (1/2 cup) fluid.  Wine sugars range from 0g - 22g sugar per 100g wine. Some wines have about twice as much sugar as coke.   Should wine be taxed extra?


Seattle Passes Regressive Soda Tax
By Christian Britschgi, June 6, 2017
reason.com/FREE MINDS AND FREE MARKETS

The city will now tax soda at a rate eight times higher than beer.

Seattle's city council passed a new soda tax yesterday over the loud opposition of local business owners, teamsters, and other citizens. At 1.75 cents per ounce—that $2.52 per 12-pack—the new rate will be eight times higher than the levy on beer.

"I think after this tax my store is going to be closed," one business owner told the councilbefore the vote. The storekeeper operates his shop on the edge of Seattle, and now will have to compete with neighboring communities that have no soda tax.

Rex Sorgatz/FlickrSeattle's city council passed a new soda tax yesterday over the loud opposition of local business owners, teamsters, and other citizens. At 1.75 cents per ounce—that $2.52 per 12-pack—the new rate will be eight times higher than the levy on beer.

"I think after this tax my store is going to be closed," one business owner told the councilbefore the vote. The storekeeper
operates his shop on the edge of Seattle, and now will have to compete with neighboring communities that have no soda tax.

"It is going to be very hard on small businesses," said another shopkeeper. "I just want to let you know that we are barely surviving on the minimum wage increase." Seattle passed a $15 minimum wage bill in 2014.

The council was unmoved, passing the measure by a vote of 7-1. The tax will go into effect after Mayor Ed Murray signs the bill.

When Murray and Councilmember Tim Burgess introduced the tax in April, they presented it as a way to encourage healthier lifestyles among minorities and to fund programs that will help close Seattle's racial achievement gap. (Among the recipients: early childhood education and subsidies to farmers markets.) The original proposal also included a tax on diet beverages, on the theory that this would make a regressive tax more equitable. In the mayor's words, "the data showed that the diet drinks were consumed by more middle-class white people." But the ordinance that passed yesterday left out the diet drinks.

Several activists who spoke on behalf of the measure acknowledged that the tax is regressive but argued that this would be mitigated by the spending it will allow. "We understand this is a regressive tax," said a dietitian with the group Got Green. "We only support it because we know and are pushing for it to go back and serve the community." Mackenzie Chase of the Save the Children Action Network echoed the point: "Early learning is a smart investment. We have a dramatic need for an investment and this is a smart way to do that."

Yet 80 percent of the revenue from the tax will go straight into Seattle's general fund, with no restrictions on how it can be spent. For the other 20 percent, the spending will follow a weak and non-exclusive list of priorities, including the administration of the tax and, perhaps most insultingly, training for workers who lose their jobs as a result of the tax. So even if it made sense to tax low-income Seattleites so that supposedly smarter officials could then give the money back to them in the form of services the government thinks they need, there's no guarantee that the soda tax will do even that.