Paging The 14th Amendment…?
By Mitch Berg
The Earl Mayor of Seattle, Ed Murray, proposed a Bloomberg-style pop tax.
Bad enough? Sure.
Then, the social justice warriors sounded off, pointing to statistics saying that minorities drink more pop than honkeys.
At first, the tax was to make distributors of sugary drinks pay 2 cents per ounce with the mayor claiming it would bring in $16 million.
It won’t. But, again, not the point.
The mayor changed his tax when his staff told him that it would disproportionately affect minorities, who apparently have higher soda consumption rates than white people.
The tax has now become an “issue of equality” as far as the mayor is concerned because “upper-middle-class white people” who consume diet drinks more frequently must be taxed to fight “white privileged institutionalized racism”, according to Reason.
I’m beyond thinking the laws actually affect this sort of behavior on the part of government.
May 9th, 2017 at 8:48 am
In The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia 1880-1939, John Carey spends a chapter on the obsession that the elites have with controlling the diets of non-elites.
Very odd. The elites don’t mind the clothes the non-elites wear, the way they talk, or the television shows that they watch (though they mock all of these), but they are intensely interested in controlling the diet of non-elites.
Sounds anal retentive. Somebody ought to make them see a psychiatrist.
May 9th, 2017 at 9:12 am
Why not cut to the chase and just have a honky tax, mayor? Two cents on every dollar earned – in perpetuity. After, that is, the initial reparations payment. Those who object will be subject to indentured servitude to the minority community. Justice. Served. Everyone is happy. Except, of course, the honky but, if it’s in the name of “equity,” who cares?
May 9th, 2017 at 9:16 am
How about levying the tax but giving an “earned soda credit” refund to persons who qualify? Might be tricky to keep out the White women who “identify” as Black – maybe reinstate the “one drop” rule?
May 9th, 2017 at 9:44 am
Does the mayor think it is 1986? Do upper middle class white people still drink diet pepsi and diet coke? Maybe he should tax wine coolers.
May 9th, 2017 at 9:46 am
A tax on Grey Poupon . . .
May 9th, 2017 at 10:10 am
A tax on Pontiac Fieros and Alan Parsons Project records…
May 9th, 2017 at 10:13 am
A tax on Pontiac Fieros and Alan Parsons Project records…
That’s going to leave a mark.
May 9th, 2017 at 10:28 am
Or, a tax on MD-20/20 and Velveeta. The trailer parks will uprise in flames.
May 9th, 2017 at 10:49 am
This is Seattle. Hit them where it hurts – soy mocha latte’s, craft beer, and an added tax on anything with organic in the name.
May 9th, 2017 at 10:51 am
These reprobates are not even beating around the bush; these taxes are targeted at a specific race.
How can this not be unconstitutional?
May 9th, 2017 at 11:00 am
[…] we noted earlier this morning, the mayor of Seattle is expanding his “soda tax” to cover diet pop1 because apparently […]
May 9th, 2017 at 11:05 am
“How can this not be unconstitutional?”
Swiftee, you are dealing with people who believe that the CIA invented crack cocaine and AIDS to hurt Black people.
May 9th, 2017 at 11:10 am
The Mayor of Seattle (I won’t waste my time confirming ze is a Democrat) wants separate soda taxes for people of color versus people of pallor?
Maybe they can set up separate soda fountains. I mean, don’t they already have some practice with this with the ‘colored’ and ‘white’ drinking fountains in their good ‘ol cracker Democrat South? But given they are crackers, there must be a non-cisgender artist co-op that can conceptualize and catch a 7-figure contract for some craptastic artist interpretation of separate but equal signs.
May 9th, 2017 at 11:17 am
It’s doubly racist, as I’d guess that poor minorities are going to be less likely to be able to get out to the suburbs to buy their sugary drinks for nearly half price–I just did a price check on Coca-Cola, and apparently the Wal-mart price is $6.48 per 24 pack, where the proposed tax is $5.76/24 pack.
Never mind a carmel macchiato at Charbucks has every bit as much sugar. Tax those too, Mayor. And dream of collecting it as every suburbanite decides it ain’t worth it anymore.
May 9th, 2017 at 11:26 am
Bubba – can you imagine the price of a Macchiato once the consumer has to cover the $15/hr minimum wage and the “White Sugar” tax? One might call it “Prohibitive”.
Demand for sugared caffeine won’t go away, of course, which leads to bootlegging, and extra-legal entrepreneurs running “black lightning” to the sleepy city denizens while trying to dodge the Revenuers.
May 9th, 2017 at 1:36 pm
That sounds like a great movie, NW. And maybe the Rolling Stones will write the soundtrack, a modification of one of their famous songs, called “White Sugar.”
May 9th, 2017 at 2:03 pm
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