The Soda Police In Philadelphia Can Now Claim Business Body Count

Drinking "too much" soda may be bad for you - but government punishing you for drinking "too much" soda is without doubt very bad for business.

At least one business - the West Philly ShopRite - is going out of business because of it, according to owner Jeff Brown.

Well, because of the tax the city of Philadelphia levies on soda - not because of the soda. 

Customers wanted the former - but were unwilling to pay for the latter, the sin tax added to the price of soda and other "sweetened" drinks (1.5 cents extra per ounce) back in 2017 as a financial deterrent to what its advocates deemed to be “excessive” consumption of these beverages. Coca Cola was once the 'real thing' and now so is losing your livelihood. 

Interestingly, the tax also applies to artificially sweetened beverages - which aren't "fattening," ostensibly the justification behind this dietary policing.

Either way, it brings up an interesting question:

How did the government - whether in Philly or Washington - get the authority to decide how much soda or sweet tea or diet soda - all legal products - we’re to be allowed to drink before we’re punished?

And doesn't this set a very dangerous precedent?

Government - our government, at least - was designed to prevent people from harming others and holding them accountable when they did. At least, it was. Now we have the Soda Police.

Or rather, the Soda Tax Police.

How long before there is a Broccoli Mandate? What was it Pink Floyd said about how can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat? 

Perhaps - per Orwell's depressingly accurate dystopian novel, 1984 - we'll soon have government-enforced jumping jacks (Orwell called them "physical jerks") every morning? Put another way, do we have government - or a nanny?

And while the purpose of the tax may have been to punish soda drinkers - or at least, to get them to drink less soda by threatening to punish them for drinking “too much” of it - in the arbitrary estimation of government bureaucrats who've arguably way overstepped the legitimate boundaries of their authority -  the real-world result has been to punish businesses like Jeff Brown’s.

“The store lost about a quarter of its business, most of it in 2017” - which was right after the tax went into effect - Brown told the Philadelphia Business Journal. Philly is my home town and Mayor Jim Kenny should be ashamed. He once did a dance to celebrate Philadelphia's sanctuary city status, now he's dancing on the graves of small businesses.

Soda is a high-margin product, meaning stores that sell it make a good profit on it. Assuming, of course, that the government doesn’t punish them for trying to sell it.

Which is what this tax comes ultimately down to.

The intended target - soda drinkers - simply bought their favorite beverages somewhere else - somewhere free of the punishing tax.

They didn't stop buying - or drinking - soda. They did not regulate behavior, they merely forced customers to use their purchasing power to find a lower price. 

It’s not that hard to go grocery shopping outside Philly into one of the collar counties - especially if there's financial incentive to do so. People also escape obnoxious gas taxes in their city (or even county or state) by filling up outside the taxing authority's jurisdiction.

The list is as endless as the opportunities. 

When it comes to not paying taxes - assuming it's legal to do so - people can be very creative. And many people also resent being taxed as a punishment. 

It's one thing to pay a tax to maintain the streets - or to fund police - or some other legitimate thing. But this tax is not about community obligations; it is about using the taxing power of the government to punish some people. 

The soda tax is both punitive - and arbitrary.

Soda and other "sugary" drinks (as well as artificially sweetened drinks) are targeted - but what about other "not-good-for-you" (so some will claim) things? What about cheesesteaks, for instance?

Whiz wit taxes or without?

You would have a simultaneous riot from Geno's to Pat's and from Jim's to Tony Luke's, which are all famous cheesesteak shops in Philadelphia. 

People tend to get annoyed by such arbitrary misuse of government power -  and express it by taking their business elsewhere, if that option is available to them.

But it’s pretty hard to pack up your store - and move it out of the taxing authority’s jurisdiction. “The losses were too great for us to absorb,” Brown said.  “So we (were) forced to close the store.”

And not just the store.

Brown told the Journal the closure will also cost 300 people their jobs. These jobs anchor people to their community - so their loss means more than just jobs going away. 

It means people going away. 300 taxpayers going away. 

Without neighborhood stores - and neighborhood jobs - people are forced to seek those things somewhere else.

And that's more than just bad for business.

Brown - who is CEO of Brown’s Superstores - said he is doing what he can to transfer some of these workers to other locations  - but the bottom line is there are fewer jobs when there are fewer stores. And more reason to abandon the communities where those jobs used to be. 

That's quite a high price to pay for trying to force people to drink less soda, but perhaps City Hall in Philly is willing to be pay it.