Economicus Situs: Counter Obesity by Increasing the Quality of Food

Essay Question: Would a ‘fat tax’ be an effective policy to counter obesity?

As we know, the most necessary thing to live the life for people is to eat. What we eat is usually our favorite indulgences.

People like cheese, ice cream, butter, and other foods with high fat content; but that fat may kill themselves by greatly increasing their cholesterol and obesity levels and raising their risk of heart disease, the evidence of it is quite a few people around the world suffer those disease, and the most the only one cause is unhealthy life style.

Obesity refers to an abnormally high proportion of body fat. It may result from undesirable weight gain caused by increased consumption of energy-dense foods high in saturated fats and sugars, concomitant with reduced physical activity.[1]

Fat tax has two purposes of being existed, those are to get people leave their bad habits they used to do that could caused the fat disease, this is the problem and the second reason is to get increased income from the tax.

‘Fat tax’ is advantageous to the extent that it raises revenue, which the government could then use to finance other measures to combat obesity, such as education programs or subsiding exercise equipment.[2]

To counter obesity depends on the sufferer or generally the people, back to their awareness to prevent the negative effect of unhealthy life style. Fat tax could only prevent but not to cure except the sufferer mind to do. At least the money from the tax could increase the budget to keep the people healthy, but it means that people still consume much of the fat food. Everything is like a fool, when we cure it after we made it, why don’t we prevent and we would never worry to cure?

Fat tax just adds the load of food business enterprise, and it couldn’t change anything. Better if the high price of fat food is not because of tax, but because of assurance of it’s healthy.

Government should become warrantor of the quality for every food that’s going to be consumed by people. Government should prevent the obesity in the right side, the original case of it, which is the combination of healthy ingredients.

For example the sugar (made by cane) that as long as we know could increase the cholesterol, nowadays could be changes by corn sugar, which have no bad effect but still give the taste people need, sweet, even the price is more expensive.

Wherever, people, nowadays, always need to be healthy. Government’s notice of it, must give many increased of countering obesity.

Here are thoughts considering this condition;

1. The expensive price of food with new innovation, technology and warranty of healthy, would be better than the expensive price because of additional load of tax to the food enterprise.

2. We couldn’t make people automatically leave their habit to eat their favorite food, even they know well those are not good for their health.

3. As we know that the net revenue will be got from total revenue minus tax, by additional tax for the production of foods such that those containing more fat or salt, automatically food price would be suddenly rise, and be related to the law of demand “All else equal, as prie falls, the quantity demanded rises, and as price rises, the corresponding quantity demanded falls”[3], moreover if the demand of those foods are elastic, it will make the demand decrease and get the enterprise bad effect for the product marketing. In other side, if the demand is inelastic, it wouldn’t influence much to the food enterprise product marketing, but the goal of the fat tax to counter obesity would never be successful.

4. With warranty of healthy product from the government of the enterprise will make the costumer believe of the product and perhaps increase the enterprise income, and has trickledown effect for the enterprise payment income tax that increased for the country.

With this paper to answer the question, would a “fat tax” be an effective policy to counter obesity, I will surely give another statement, which is not necessary to give the “fat tax”, but to make a rule for healthy combination ingredient for any foods to consume. By that way both the costumer and the enterprise would have good fortune.

The government should do that policy for build the mutualism relation between the costumer, enterprise and government. It’s good to keep the health, prevent the disease, and cure the suffering of fat disease.

If we compare the “fat tax” as “sin tax” similar to alcohol taxation, it could be different in the composition of ingredient and the effect after consumption.

Alcohol has truly bad effect even people just have a little consumption on it, the effect of drunk is so dangerous, and should be forbidden to consume. The tax for alcohol is a good policy.

Different with fat food, which actually doesn’t caused the disease when it’s not too much in consumption, but the better way is controlling and the warranty of food quality, to keep healthy, prevent the disease and or cure the suffering.

The actor and the action to do the policy;

Actor	Action
Government	· Controlling and making rules of production a fat food · Watching the enterprise transaction and marketing. · Labeling for every kind of food, to inform people which one food should they consume or not, ex : ‘fat’, ‘Not for Children’, etc.
Enterprise	· Do like the rules, make innovation to get warranty quality of product. · Create and Keep quality. · Combine the healthy ingredient to product any food
Costumers	· Should realize of what they need or forbid for themselves · Consume the healthy food, and have a healthy life style

By that way, government does not need to add the load of enterprise of fat tax, the enterprise could increase the quality of product, even the price would be more expensive but it’s save to consume by people, and the most hopefully goal is healthy society.