Devoir d'Anglais sur l'obésité

Obesity is a problem in many developed countries. To encourage citizens to adopt a healthy diet, some experts have proposed a fat tax on junk foods based on their fat content. What do you think of such a proposal?

Today, obesity touches more and more people over the world. So, it is a real topical problem, but I don't quite believe that establish a fat tax is a good solution.

Indeed, a fat tax would appears quite unfair.

First, life is already enough expensive to establish a supplementary tax. Taxation will just disadvantage poor people and even the middle class. Of course, the cheapest food is junk food. A taxation of junk foods should permit a price-cutting of healthy food like vegetable. In that case, instead of being disadvantageous for the poors, taxation would allow them to access to healthy food.

Secondly, this tax would concern everyone, even healthy people who are not overweight and yet who like some caloric food. Moreover, it is the individual who has to take care of himself ; after all, it is something personal. Obesity is such an important issue that it can justify a limitation of freedom, but in a proportional way. To my mind, if taxes have to be imposed, it must not be excessive.

Nevertheless, whether Food habits are personal, they have repercussions for the State.

States are all the more worried about expansion of obesity because of the risks inherent to it. Indeed, outcomes of obesity really has bad consequences, both for individuals and for States. For individuals, it sparks off a lot of health problems like diabetes. For States, these latter implied huge cost to guarantee treatments.

So, obesity concerns the public interest, that is why States have to limit its spread. Furthermore, the money spent to take care of obese people could also be spent in other fields of public policy. In addition, the obesity rate's increase is linked to the consumption‘s society lifestyle. The law can change the mind of people, as it has already been done for the road safety.

In a nutshell, it is clearly true that obesity is a plague which has to be stopped. However, establish a fat tax is not the best way to do it. If people want to eat junk foods, they will. The individual has to make his own choices. The State's role is just to promote a healthy way of life without imposing anything.