While I don’t consume too much fast food here, I do smoke cigarettes. That being the case, I do feel some empathy for fast food junkies. The reality is that the lifestyle police should have been stopped dead in their tracks when they went after tobacco. The lifestyle police always justify such things by saying “smokers cost Medicare x number of dollars” or “fast food junkies cost Medicare x number of dollars when they get fat”. The other side of the coin is what are the lifestyle police costing you? What is the return on your investment? Just about zilch I would guess. After cigarette taxes were raised to phenomenal levels, did the Medicare withholding amount on your paycheck go down?
posted by mike2004 at 06:20 A.M. EST on Mon May 09, 2005 #
My nomination for "Stupidest Tax Proposal of the Decade."
All this will do is stifle the already-weak entreprenurial spirit in Detroit. People will then have another reason to take their business out of the city.
What utter and complete nonsense. The last thing Detroit needs is another tax.
It is sad to see the depths to which Detroit has sunk. What is even scarier - things could actually get worse.
posted by historymike at 07:27 A.M. EST on Mon May 09, 2005 #
Yes, please enact another tax in Toledo such as the fat tax. All taxes are loudly proclaimed to be for our own good. An idiot locution at best.
Detroit wants to tax the fat instead of cutting the fat. If you are not willing to go on a fiscal diet then there is only one way to enhance revenue. Tax the populace until they move to the suburbs.
Toledo has the same problem, i.e., they are unwilling to cut the fat at the Ivory Tower. Cut the police and fire departments, Jack yells from the top of Government One surrounded by his inflated staff.
With the loss of OI's tax revenues, we should not be surprised if the fat tax is being carefully analyzed by the powers that be.
posted by maverick at 08:42 A.M. EST on Mon May 09, 2005 #
Detroit, though, has little fat left to cut, besides Kwame Kilpatrick's partying bodyguards.
City services are almost nil. The only areas that get attention are the tourist zones in and immediately around downtown. The school system will likely fall under state receivership, and the police and fire departments are woefully understaffed. There are areas in which the police no longer have effective control or, perhaps, are paid to look the other way.
Best Detroit muckraking blog:
http://www.geocities.com/firejerryo/
The casinos have sparked some retail in their vicinity, but the only true beneficiaries of the gambling schemes are the investors. The city and state get a piece of the pie, but these tax revenues have not panned out to be the revenue boom predicted by casino proponents.
I am saddened when I drive through my old Detroit neighborhoods (I lived in the city 25 years). Take the worst Toledo neighborhood you can think of, multiply by 10, and you still would not get an equivalent to the worst parts of Detroit.
posted by historymike at 08:53 A.M. EST on Mon May 09, 2005 #
Kwame is the biggest crook around. That city is so corrupt it's not even funny anymore. Problem is, that city has been bad since the 60's, and it's only getting worse. When Dennis Archer was mayor, the city actually started to rebound a little bit. People were still moving out, but the loss was less, crime was decreasing somewhat, and some businesses were moving in.
What makes the city even worse is the the governor just hands out money to Detroit and some of the other hellhole, mismanaged cities in Michigan (like Flint, which I call Detroit Jr.) and it does not work. I'm sick of giving my tax dollars to a city I know is doomed. let Detroit try to fix their own mess, not demand the suburbs and the rest of Michigan do it. No matter how bad Toledo may be, at least they have a nice section. Detroit has no such thing.
posted by someguy23475 at 09:16 P.M. EST on Thu May 12, 2005 #
Since I rarely eat fast food, I'm all for a fast food tax in Toledo. Start out with a 25 cent tax. Think of the money Toledo would get from that.
From a letter to the editor in the May 13 Blade about Ohio's tax increase on alcohol:
"I support raising taxes on beer sales because any increase in taxes leads to a reduction in sales and thus a reduction in problems related to alcohol use. Raising the taxes on cigarettes has decreased the use of the product, which will be an overall benefit to all in the long run."
Okay. Using that same logic (that's a stretch) used for tobacco and alcohol, wouldn't a tax on fast food help reduce obesity? People would be healthier and wouldn't be running to the doctor as often for every cough and sniffle. That would translate into less sick time being used at work, and it would help slow the rising costs of health care. Every taxpayer pays about $200 a year for obesity-related illnesses, so we would all benefit from a fast food tax. Bring on the big government. We need it as much as possible in our lives.
posted by jr at 03:19 P.M. EST on Fri May 13, 2005 #
I think we should also have a "dangerous lifestyle" tax...
...a $1 tax on people who want to ride a roller coaster, go skydiving, bungee jumping, etc. We would just add it to the admission fee.
...also, a $3 tax on ice fishing gear... after all, think of the taxpayer money spent to go save the few dimwits that get trapped out on the ice on Lake Erie?
...and a $5 tax on high heeled shoes, because they are poor footwear for women and this will recoup the medical costs associated with foot injuries...
......where do we stop assigning taxes as a form of social engineering? Or is that ok nowadays?
posted by timault at 03:39 P.M. EST on Fri May 13, 2005 #
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