Tax fizzy drinks and ban junk food ads, say UK doctors

[bhikkhu]

11. Why assume that things will be taken to extremes? People are generally well-intentioned

and governments are generally competent, and composed of well-intentioned people. A tax on a harmful activity is a nudge towards health, balancing a respect for individual choice.

There are all sorts of examples of government managing this sort of thing well without going overboard, and most people are capable of looking at the problem and seeing what is reasonable and what is not.

I think that only on our US talk radio would a "nudge toward health" be cast as the beginnings of totalitarian control, and only here would a population willing to have a bit of assistance with their diets be cast as a bunch of mommy's boys. Which, of course, is more like simplistic 3rd grade playground slander than actually looking at the issues.