Gather round, children
Please indulge me in the following hypothetical.
Let's say--hypothetically--there were a proposed tax on Cheetos. Everyone knows Cheetos are bad for you and that if you eat too many, you could get obese and die. Furthermore, we can tax Cheetos as much as we want because we know people will still buy them. Now everytime you buy Cheetos there's someone giving you a number to call, which will connect you with your Congressperson so you can voice your complaint about this proposed tax. So you call and let's say--hypothetically--a typical call goes something like this: "Ya'll need to stop taxing Cheetos. It's a personal choice to eat Cheetos. They're already expensive enough. I'm on a fixed income and can barely feed my family; I don't want Cheetos to get any more expensive." Now suppose--hypothetically--that you're an intern in said Congressperson's office. And you hear about 10 calls a day that are some variant of the above. If you're a specific intern, you feel no sympathy for these people. How about instead of feeding your Cheetos addiction you feed your family first? With nutritious food, of course. Not Cheetos. There's all sorts of secondhand effects of Cheetos--orange fingers, bad breath... Now you might--hypothetically--ask, why yet another tax on Cheetos? Why, to fund insurance for uninsured children. But we're still against it, dammit. Because, dammit, it is my choice to eat two or three or four bags of Cheetos every day!
Hypothetically.
Let's say--hypothetically--there were a proposed tax on Cheetos. Everyone knows Cheetos are bad for you and that if you eat too many, you could get obese and die. Furthermore, we can tax Cheetos as much as we want because we know people will still buy them. Now everytime you buy Cheetos there's someone giving you a number to call, which will connect you with your Congressperson so you can voice your complaint about this proposed tax. So you call and let's say--hypothetically--a typical call goes something like this: "Ya'll need to stop taxing Cheetos. It's a personal choice to eat Cheetos. They're already expensive enough. I'm on a fixed income and can barely feed my family; I don't want Cheetos to get any more expensive." Now suppose--hypothetically--that you're an intern in said Congressperson's office. And you hear about 10 calls a day that are some variant of the above. If you're a specific intern, you feel no sympathy for these people. How about instead of feeding your Cheetos addiction you feed your family first? With nutritious food, of course. Not Cheetos. There's all sorts of secondhand effects of Cheetos--orange fingers, bad breath... Now you might--hypothetically--ask, why yet another tax on Cheetos? Why, to fund insurance for uninsured children. But we're still against it, dammit. Because, dammit, it is my choice to eat two or three or four bags of Cheetos every day!
Hypothetically.