Berkeley’s Soda
Tax is Upper-Class War on Poor
by Chriss W. Street 27 Aug 2016Newport Beach, CA
Although Berkeley, California
claims its “soda tax” cuts
unhealthy purchases by 21 percent, it mostly taxes the poor and exempts the
high-sugared coffee treats that the upper-class crave.
The pioneering 2014 law led to elitists in Mexico,
England, and France
pushing through taxes on sugar-laden soda beverages; while Philadelphia became
the second city in the United States to pass a soda tax in June. Similar
ordinances are now on the November ballots in the three Northern California
cities of San
Francisco, Oakland and Albany.
According to a new University of California study published in
the American Journal of Public Health less than three months before the local
Bay Area elections, Berkeley’s penny-per-ounce tax levy on sugary soda drinks
is being hailed a major public health success in reducing sugar drinks that
cause high rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
Opposition to a “soda tax” normally focuses on the
discriminatory nature of singling out one sugared item in the grocery cart as
the culprit for bad health. But the more insidious issue is that soda taxes are
specifically discriminatory by economic class.
Elite upper-class UC professors would vocally shame a
soda guzzlers carrying a 64 ounce Mountain Dew Arctic Burst, but they are mum
when it comes to their own Starbucks Venti Caramel Brulée Frappuccino, packed
with 520 calories. Furthermore, large sugary coffee drinks contain
about 50 percent of an adult’s daily recommended allowance of saturated fat.
According to one New York City poll,
only 11.2 percent of those living in the elite upscale Chelsea or Greenwich
Village and just 18.4 percent of adults in the tony Upper East and West Sides
popped a soda a day. That was far below the poor neighborhoods of Brooklyn’s
Flatbush, where 45.7 percent popped a soda each day and the South Bronx, where
45.5 percent of residents are daily soda drinkers.
But if the study would have included sugared coffee
drinks, the percentage of elites that imbibe sugared drinks would have been
much more similar. There are 2,000
Starbucks locations in New York City, with the vast majority in
upscale communities. For the low sugared soda drinkers of Chelsea, Greenwich
Village and Upper East and West Sides, there is a Starbucks every two blocks on
average, plus plenty of coffee competitors.
Furthermore, national canned soda sales have been in a
decade-long decline, dropping another 1.2 percent in 2015, according to
Beverage Digest. But sugary “ready-to-drink” canned coffee drinks jumped by 19
percent in 2015. Canned coffee beverages volume grew by 48.1 percent over the
last five years, from 50.6 million to 89.7 million gallons.
None of the nations or the cities that have passed or
have on the ballot a “Starbucks Tax” on frothy sugared coffee concoctions,
because it would be wildly unpopular to tax the same upper-class politicians
and elites that tend to push “nanny state” laws.
John
Cawley, professor of public policy and economics at Cornell
University, is suspicious that the UC Berkeley study may be flawed because
retailers absorbed
30-50 percent of the tax.
Cawley agreed that “when prices go up, people buy less,”
due to the law of demand. “But this is a very large decrease.” He added
sarcastically, “It will be interesting, as more information comes in, whether
this finding holds up.”
Soda
Coca-Cola
Company was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Note: Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and the Committee for Economic Development.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, Jonathan
Soros’s father, was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and Gavin Newsom was a guest at his 2013 wedding reception.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank), the Roosevelt
Institute, and the Committee for
Economic Development.
PepsiCo, Inc. was
a funder for the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
David B. Weinberg
is a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a director
at the Coca-Cola Company.
Ernesto Zedillo
is an international advisory board member for the Coca-Cola Company, and was the president of Mexico.
Janet A. Howard
was a VP for the Coca-Cola Company,
is a governor at the Roosevelt Institute,
and a director at the French-American
Foundation.
Jonathan Soros is
a senior fellow at the Roosevelt
Institute, and George Soros’s
son.
Donald F. McHenry
was a director at the Coca-Cola Company,
and is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
James D.
Robinson III was a director at the Coca-Cola
Company, and is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
Mary N. Dillon
was an EVP for the Coca-Cola Company,
a division president for PepsiCo, Inc.,
and is a director at the Starbucks
Corporation.
Craig E. Weatherup
was the president of PepsiCo, Inc.,
and is a director at the Starbucks
Corporation.
Larry D. Thompson
is an EVP of governmental affairs, general counsel & secretary for PepsiCo, Inc., and an honorary trustee
at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Sheryl K. Sandberg
was a director at the Starbucks
Corporation, and a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
David H. Romer was
a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
University
of California, Berkeley is a University
of California campus.
Haas
School of Business is a business school at the University of California, Berkeley.
Richard C. Blum
is a regent at the University of
California, a board member at the Haas
School of Business, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), married to Dianne
Feinstein, and a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Douglas E.
Goldman is a board member at the Haas
School of Business, and was a medical director of emergency services for San Francisco (CA).
Coca-Cola
Company was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
PepsiCo, Inc. was
a funder for the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Dianne Feinstein
is married to Richard C. Blum, a California congressional delegation senator,
and was the mayor of San Francisco (CA).
Charlotte
Mailliard Shultz is the chief protocol officer for San Francisco (CA), a governor for the Commonwealth Club of California, and married to George P. Shultz.
Lata Krishnan
Shah is a governor for the Commonwealth
Club of California, and was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Coca-Cola
Company was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
PepsiCo, Inc. was
a funder for the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
George P. Shultz
is married to Charlotte Mailliard Shultz,
and was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
Larry D. Thompson
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and an EVP of governmental affairs, general counsel
& secretary for PepsiCo, Inc.
G. Richard Thoman
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and a director at the French-American Foundation.
Douglas M. Price
is a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and a director at the French-American Foundation.
Janet A. Howard
is a director at the French-American
Foundation, a governor at the Roosevelt
Institute, and was a VP for the Coca-Cola
Company.
Jonathan Soros is
a senior fellow at the Roosevelt
Institute, and George Soros’s
son.
Charles E.M. Kolb
is a director at the French-American
Foundation, and the president of the Committee
for Economic Development.
Stuart E. Eizenstat
was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and is an international advisory board member for the
Coca-Cola Company.
Carolyn S. Chin
was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, and is a member of the Belizean Grove.
Belizean_Grove
is the equivalent to the male-only social group, the Bohemian Club.
Julie
Daum is a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and a member of the Belizean Grove.
Henrietta
Holsman Fore is a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and a member of the Belizean Grove.
Davia B. Temin is
a trustee at the Committee for Economic
Development, and a member of the Belizean
Grove.
Mary Agnes
Wilderotter is a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and a member of the Belizean Grove.
Maryles Casto is
a member of the Belizean Grove, and
a governor for the Commonwealth Club of
California.
Charlotte
Mailliard Shultz is a governor for the Commonwealth
Club of California, married to George
P. Shultz, and the chief protocol officer for San Francisco (CA).
George P. Shultz
is married to Charlotte Mailliard Shultz,
and was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
Gavin
Newsom was the mayor of San
Francisco (CA), an invited to George
Soros’s 2013 wedding reception, and is the lieutenant governor for the California state government.
Jerry
Brown is the governor for the California
state government, and Kathleen L.
Brown’s brother.
Kathleen L. Brown
was the California state government
treasurer, is Jerry Brown’s sister,
and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Newton N. Minow
is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past
Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Richard M. Daley
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a director at the Coca-Cola
Company.
Mellody L. Hobson
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a director at the Starbucks
Corporation.
Byron D. Trott is
a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a friend of Warren E.
Buffett.
Warren E. Buffett
is a friend of Byron D. Trott, Howard G. Buffett’s father, the chairman
& CEO for Berkshire Hathaway Inc.,
and was a director at the Coca-Cola
Company.
Howard G. Buffett
is Warren E. Buffett’s son, a
director at the Coca-Cola Company,
and a director at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Ronald L. Olson
is a director at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.,
and was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
George P. Shultz was
a trustee at the Committee for Economic
Development, and is married to Charlotte
Mailliard Shultz.
Charlotte
Mailliard Shultz is married to George
P. Shultz, a governor for the Commonwealth
Club of California, and the chief protocol officer for San Francisco (CA).
Maryles Casto is
a governor for the Commonwealth Club of
California, and a member of the Belizean
Grove.
Belizean_Grove
is the equivalent to the male-only social group, the Bohemian Club.
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