Mayor Bloomberg Bans Big Sodas

GhostWriter16 · Sep 17, 2012

Its official, New York city has passed its Nanny state law.

Are you kidding me? So now government should be allowed to tell us what size drinks we can buy? Whatever the heck happened to personal responsibility?

In spite of my libertarian streak I don't take issue with laws that are meant to inform us, like requiring that we be able to see calorie counts of items we are purchasing, or whatnot. But a law actually preventing us from making a purchasing decision of choice is ridiculous.

And if any lefties on here are going to defend this because its going to hurt corporations, its really not. They'll just charge what they charged before on a big soda for a smaller one, or convince you to buy two. In fact, people will probably buy two solely to protest the law.

Its ridiculous. It goes well beyond the role the state should have in regulating our lives. "Nanny Bloomberg" should be called out on his absurd obesession with telling people how to live their lives.

Do you agree with him? Poll coming.

Maimonides · Sep 17, 2012

At last...I agree with Domination3000 on something. Progress is being made.

squadbroken · Sep 17, 2012

Spoiler :

Zelig · Sep 17, 2012

GhostWriter16 said:
Its official, New York city has passed its Nanny state law.

Are you kidding me? So now government should be allowed to tell us what size drinks we can buy? Whatever the heck happened to personal responsibility?

In spite of my libertarian streak I don't take issue with laws that are meant to inform us, like requiring that we be able to see calorie counts of items we are purchasing, or whatnot. But a law actually preventing us from making a purchasing decision of choice is ridiculous.

And if any lefties on here are going to defend this because its going to hurt corporations, its really not. They'll just charge what they charged before on a big soda for a smaller one, or convince you to buy two. In fact, people will probably buy two solely to protest the law.

Its ridiculous. It goes well beyond the role the state should have in regulating our lives. "Nanny Bloomberg" should be called out on his absurd obesession with telling people how to live their lives.

Do you agree with him? Poll coming.

What if it turns out to be remarkably effective and significantly improves the health of New York City citizens?

Skwink · Sep 17, 2012

I drank a large cup of pop at Burgerking today in remembrance of the New Yorkers.

~Corsair#01~ · Sep 17, 2012

Drinks and fries are generally priced at a rate which forces consumers to either a) get the biggest size available or b) get much, much less for their money. The difference in price between medium/small and the biggest size available is always miniscule relative to the overall price of the meal.

So I don't buy the idea that this is a "choice" issue. The corporations have already completely stacked the deck in one direction in order to get consumers to behave the way they want them to. Bloomberg's move simply counters this manipulative technique with another manipulative technique. People can still buy two drinks, as the OP said. So the "choice", if one can really use that word for what consumers are being offered here, is still there.

I personally would like to see laws which prevent fast-food companies from having these huge value-for-money differentials between normal size meals and the biggest size meals altogether. If consumers pay the same or near the same per unit of volume for a small drink as they do for a supersize one then consumers will have a hell of a lot more "choice" in their meal sizes than they do today.

Valka D'Ur · Sep 17, 2012

How many mL is 16 ounces? :confused:

~Corsair#01~ · Sep 17, 2012

Valka D'Ur said:
How many mL is 16 ounces?

It's about one pound, or a quarter of a yard.

Valka D'Ur · Sep 17, 2012

I asked a serious question, and you give me a garbage answer. :rolleyes:

MagisterCultuum · Sep 17, 2012

The term ounce can refer to several different types of measurement. The most common are units of volume or mass.

16 fluid ounces = 473.176 milliliters (This is probably what you want)

16 dry (avoirdupois ) ounces = 453.592 grams = 1 pound-mass

16 Troy ounces = 4/3 of a Troy Pound = 497.6556288 grams

16 ounces-force = 1 pound-force

16 ounces-time = 2 minutes
(This unit has not really been used since the middle ages)

16 ounces-length (Roman inches) = 1/12 of a Roman Foot = 42.60 centimeters

16 ounce-length (medieval English measure) = 1/12 of a Yard = 3 inches = 1.21 meters

classical_hero · Sep 17, 2012

Here a large drink is 600mls. I am not certain that this is right, but since they couldn't tax the larger drinks more, this is the second best option thy had available.

WindFish · Sep 17, 2012

GhostWriter16 said:
Its official, New York city has passed its Nanny state law.

Are you kidding me? So now government should be allowed to tell us what size drinks we can buy? Whatever the heck happened to personal responsibility?

In spite of my libertarian streak I don't take issue with laws that are meant to inform us, like requiring that we be able to see calorie counts of items we are purchasing, or whatnot. But a law actually preventing us from making a purchasing decision of choice is ridiculous.

And if any lefties on here are going to defend this because its going to hurt corporations, its really not. They'll just charge what they charged before on a big soda for a smaller one, or convince you to buy two. In fact, people will probably buy two solely to protest the law.

Its ridiculous. It goes well beyond the role the state should have in regulating our lives. "Nanny Bloomberg" should be called out on his absurd obesession with telling people how to live their lives.

Do you agree with him? Poll coming.

Why do you always frame stuff as "if you're against me, you're an evil leftist"?

Bloomberg is an elected GOP Mayor.

GoodSarmatian · Sep 17, 2012

GhostWriter16 said:
Its official, New York city has passed its Nanny state law.

As a left of center European I have to say:

You're doing it wrong !

A good 'nanny state' cares for it's people by providing decent minimum standards for their basic needs and uses taxes and subsidies to direct their behavious. It doesn't pass arbitrary bans like this.

FriendlyFire · Sep 17, 2012

classical_hero said:
Here a large drink is 600mls. I am not certain that this is right, but since they couldn't tax the larger drinks more, this is the second best option thy had available.

The big glup is 1.89 Liters.
Our Large 600ml is the US regular sized drink.

Outright ban is good intentions but terrible method, better off having a mandatory warning instead.
Pictures of some fat people

Disgustipated · Sep 17, 2012

I suggest putting pictures of fat people on the outside of the sodas.

Seriously the ban is just dumb. People will just buy 2 sodas of half the size instead of one. This accomplishes nothing and is a waste of time.

If anything it will hurt the environment more and increase energy usage (from the production of plastic) as people buy more containers.

bhsup · Sep 17, 2012

Remember how when the big doom hammer started coming down on the cigarette companies in the 90s and people worried about what was next? Suing McDonald's for making people fat? HA! Ridiculous they said, the government would never get involved with stuff like that.

Yeah, who's laughing now. I know it isn't McDonald's being sued, but is it really such a laughable impossibility as was once thought?

Welcome to Amerika, comrade.

FriendlyFire · Sep 17, 2012

VRWCAgent said:
Remember how when the big doom hammer started coming down on the cigarette companies in the 90s and people worried about what was next? Suing McDonald's for making people fat? HA! Ridiculous they said, the government would never get involved with stuff like that.

Yeah, who's laughing now. I know it isn't McDonald's being sued, but is it really such a laughable impossibility as was once thought?

Kuidaore ?

Nothing like the government banning everything except food and entertainment. Thats what I think happening now as people trade one vice for another.

Traitorfish · Sep 17, 2012

GhostWriter16 said:
In fact, people will probably buy two solely to protest the law.

I don't think that most people actually think like that.

Quackers · Sep 17, 2012

Give me my Big Gulp or give me death!

squadbroken · Sep 17, 2012

Traitorfish said:
I don't think that most people actually think like that.

A few might. For a bit. Then they'll forget or stop caring and life will continue.

This is why I can't bring myself to care about this. Nobody is stopping New Yorkers from getting a dozen refills or chugging a half-gallon of sugary death straight from the bottle. What this will do is end two rather underhanded practices: selling bigass drinks to minors who don't know any better, and upselling bigass drinks to adults buying fast food (and don't give me any crap about "choice", upselling exists because it works; it's not hard to manipulate people).

Mayor Bloomberg Bans Big Sodas

Do you agree with Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to limit soda sizes?

No!

Heck No!

I don't care about freedom, so yes

Yes

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