Want a Coke and a Smile? Then Bend Over Philly…

Whenever the government passes legislation that they deem is for the “good of the citizens” I know that they are either going to take more money or limit freedoms. In 2016 the mayor and city council of Philadelphia, in a move that would have our founding fathers rolling over in their graves, managed to pass an increase soda tax that did both. As the year turned to 2017 many residents of Philadelphia were hit with sudden sticker shock of this newly enforced excessive tax on so called sugary drinks which ironically also included many beverages that include no sugar.

The new 1.5 cent per ounce tax took effect on January 1 st and the results will shock you. As ABC Action News 6 reports one resident purchased a gallon of tea for $1.77 and then paid a whopping tax of $1.92. Have we strayed into some ridiculous socialist fantasyland when people begin paying more in taxes than what the actual product cost? While many of the others examples cited by ABC 6 were nowhere near as egregious as this one they are clearly outrageous.

Of course the latest tax grab for “revenue” is aimed at collecting money to support the mayor’s Pre-K program, but when will liberals learn. While the liberals are all patting themselves on the back because they managed to rustle up some “revenue” for the city, “save the children” and punish those that have not learned their lessons of the evils of sugary and low calorie beverages; the rest of us know what is coming.

First even though the tax is aimed at the distributors and not at the consumers, businesses do not pay taxes. Businesses pass this tax along to us either via higher prices, reduction in pay to employees or reducing dividends to their investors. We are the consumers, the employees and the investors so we pay this tax. This tax is punitive enough that it will drive down the sales of these items over time as people realize that they are no longer worth the cost. Businesses will lose sales. People will stop buying them within the city and either do without or go outside the city limits to make these purchases. Once the sales of these items dry up so will the “revenue” that the brilliant minds that conceived this ridiculous tax are counting on to fund their Pre-K programs. At last once the newly established entitlement program is given you can hardly expect it to be taken away and the parents of the children expected to prepare their kids for the rigors of public education without government assistance and thus money will have to be utilized from taxes already collected or some new scheme to grab it will be developed.

Yes liberals are as shortsighted as they are stupid when it comes to economics. Of course they could be crazy like a fox, because they get to further trample your civil liberties, enact another welfare program that will last forever and know that once the money dries up they can use the rally cry of “Save the Children” to steal more money from the citizens to fuel their egos and desire to control every aspect of your life. Yes they are either stupid or evil, but I am glad I do not live in Philly.