Seattle Mayor Taxes Diet Drinks ‘To Tackle White Privilege’

The Mayor of Seattle has officially lost his mind:

Mayor Ed Murray of the staunchly liberal Seattle city originally proposed the soda tax during his state of the city address in February. Under his initial plan, distributors of sugary drinks would have to pay 2 cents per ounce. It would cover sodas such as Coke and Pepsi, energy drinks like Red Bull, fruit drinks, sweetened teas and bottled coffees such as those sold by Starbucks.

The Mayor claimed the tax would bring $16 million in revenue that would be spent on education programs aimed at reducing disparities between the city’s white students and students of color.

But wait just one second…  guess who drinks more sugary drinks?  Black people.  And so, he decided to tax diet drinks — which have no calories and aren’t contributing to obesity — because white people drink those more.  Call it a “white privilege tax.” Murray lowered the levy to 1.75 cents per ounce and added those nefarious diet drinks because rich white people drink them.

According to Reason, taxing diet drinks has become “an issue of equality” to the mayor because they more likely to be consumed by “upper middle class white people” and therefore must be taxed as a way to fight “white privileged institutionalized racism.”

This is a prime example of government run amok.  When you tax something, people will consume it less.  With the obesity rate as high as it is, this mayor shouldn’t penalize people for making good choices… OR for being white.

Image Credit: Kevin Trotman on FlickR