Cook County Illinois Has a Soda Tax That Goes Into Effect on July 1st, How Long Before St. Louis County Follows Suit?

Cook County Illinois is  huge and includes the city of Chicago, and like other parts of the country in a few days residents will be paying extra for that soda or energy drink.

Every city, county and state is always trying to find a way to generate money with out constantly relying on one particular group or another to support this need for more funds. As of November 2016- 5 more cities joined the "soda tax"  along with the entire Cook County area in Illinois.

Each city or county is different as far as how much they tax and what products are taxed as well. In the case of Cook County it is 1 cent tax per ounce of soda, including Diet also energy drinks, Ice Tea, lemonade, and even fruit juice that is not 100% juice.

I understand the argument for the health aspect of these beverages when not drank in moderation. But, playing devils advocate here, don't you find it rather strange that given how long soda has been in existence, it is now such a big health problem? People have been drinking this product for years and it contained real sugar. Now all of a sudden this is something that needs a special tax for people to drink less and get healthier.

I truly believe it is a combination of a lot of factors besides soda. Yes this is one of many things we Americans have access too, but I also believe that children in general follow by example from their parents as far as balance in their diet and exercise.  Why is childhood obesity on the rise in this country? Is it all because of these drinks, obviously not.

Soda machines have been removed from schools, and the kids then smuggle it into school and sell it to their classmates. I do think that people will drink less of these drinks with a price increase or at least not drink the jumbo sizes since that will cost more, but for you as an  adult do you feel it is fair to have to pay extra for something deemed unhealthy?

When does this end, will all junk food be taxed at some point? Or maybe cereal, candy, your favorite chips, bread, crackers the list goes on and on . I am not trying to come off discouraging healthy food or lifestyle I am just making an observation of the current trend and how far reaching this could go. What would you do If this type of tax was put into place locally?