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Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#3
Because all of the laws prohibiting alcohol to minors has worked so well, or preventing minors from viewing pornography.

Like this sounds like an SNL skit, "Hey I'm going to need to see some ID before you can get those Doritos." Cut to outside the shop he's handing it to a 14 year old suddenly lights sirens "PUT THE DORITOS ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!". Another cut to a prison courtyard. "Hey man so what did you do."

"Me, I ran the biggest underground junk food rink in the country. There wasn't a Hoho, or Snickers in the country that hit the street without my knowing about it. You think M13 is scary, my network made them look like chumps, Sinola feared the sounds of my crew. Hey you want some of the sweet stuff." Furtively shows him some powdered donuts.

On the flip side Mexico has enough of a problem right now preventing people from doing hard drugs let alone gummy worms, so the practical effect will probably be nil.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#4
post #3

Because all of the laws prohibiting alcohol to minors has worked so well, or preventing minors from viewing pornography. Like this sounds like an SNL skit, "Hey I'm going to need to see some ID before you can get those Doritos." Cut to outside the shop he's handing it to a 14 year old suddenly lights sirens "PUT THE DORITOS ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!". Another cut to a prison courtyard. "Hey m…

What makes you think that laws prohibiting alcohol to minors aren't useful? Those laws don't have to completely eliminate alcohol consumption by minors to be successful, they just have to make it less likely to happen. My gut feeling is that alcohol consumption among teenagers would be higher if it wasn't banned, though I don't have any data to back my claim.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#5
post #3

Because all of the laws prohibiting alcohol to minors has worked so well, or preventing minors from viewing pornography. Like this sounds like an SNL skit, "Hey I'm going to need to see some ID before you can get those Doritos." Cut to outside the shop he's handing it to a 14 year old suddenly lights sirens "PUT THE DORITOS ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!". Another cut to a prison courtyard. "Hey m…

What makes you think that laws prohibiting alcohol to minors aren't useful? Those laws don't have to completely eliminate alcohol consumption by minors to be successful, they just have to make it less likely to happen. My gut feeling is that alcohol consumption among teenagers would be higher if it wasn't banned, though I don't have any data to back my claim.

I don't get the cynicism either. In the US cigarette usage has gone down tremendously through the decades as laws have gotten more restrictive and advertising more out there. I'm sure I would eat less junk food if it was less accessible.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#7
Initiatives like this has always appeared to me as a cheap way for societies to improve the health of their population.

Perhaps better done in the form of a tax - in the sense that junk food causes an externality in the form of health problems, that does seem warranted. The underlying problem is that the incentives are not aligned.

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#8
post #3

Because all of the laws prohibiting alcohol to minors has worked so well, or preventing minors from viewing pornography. Like this sounds like an SNL skit, "Hey I'm going to need to see some ID before you can get those Doritos." Cut to outside the shop he's handing it to a 14 year old suddenly lights sirens "PUT THE DORITOS ON THE GROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!". Another cut to a prison courtyard. "Hey m…

Obesity is an external cost that just doesn't get accounted for in a free market. So far, regulation is a blunt tool, but still a lot more effective than other tools we have to deal with this.

For instance, in Indonesia, it's common for Big Tobacco to sell cheap cigarettes near schools [1]. This is insane, but from a purely free market perspective it makes perfect sense. Get your product in peoples hands as early as possible, and now you've got a customer for decades. All the social costs of higher rates of cancer etc will be borne by the taxpayer, so why should big tobacco care.

[1] http://www.tobaccoinduceddiseases.org/Density-of-cigarette-r...

Re: Mexican states are moving to ban the sale of junk food to children

#9
more info on Chile, mentioned in article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/health/chile-soda-warning...

it's probably safe to say that this is a global public health imperative, given the suffering/costs/economic loss around the world that these beverages and food-like products cause. would also like to see some money from things like corn driven to healthy food subsidies e.g. spinach (or pick your favorite) to offset any increase in costs from taxation

also: bearish for coca-cola long term?

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