A BITE SIZED SOLUTION. I'm not sure how to feel about economist Martin B. Schmidt's New York Times op-ed from yesterday. In it he argues for a 10% tax on food ordered from drive-throughs on the grounds that it will encourage people to get out of their cars, and raise money to off-set the social cost of obesity. In principle I think these are both laudable goals, but in practice this idea is deeply flawed. As long as there are drive-throughs, taxing the people who use them and not people who order the same food at the walk-in counter could reasonably be construed as discriminatory against people with disabilties. But I'm also troubled by the American state of mind that this suggestion seems to accept. Here is an economist, who clearly understands how our excessive driving culture bloats our wastelines -- and by extension our healthcare spending -- but his solution is almost comically miniscule. Getting people to walk a few steps from the parking lot to the door of a McDonald's will have a tiny effect on public health and the environment (another benefit Schmidt points to.) Getting people to walk to work, or take mass transit there, would have an infinitely larger impact on both. But for that we need to fundamentally alter the American landscape. The tax we need to affect consumer choices and urban planning on that level is on gasoline, not drive-through fast food.
--Ben Adler
