Protecting the poor with policy

Just a link to a NYT editorial, Healthy Solution: Taxing Sodas on a proposed NY tax on sugary sodas and beverages. The comparison is made between the positive impact of taxes on cigarettes, which are said to have made a dent in the number of smokers, and a possible impact of a tax on soda.  The editorial is a disturbing plea to pass paternalistic policy to help the poor (alliteration, what a joy).  I agree with the tax, but I dislike the attitude that I am finding in more and more editorials.  This attitude suggest that poor people, like the children who also are the focus of much of the discussion of possible policy on sodas and junk food, need to be protected. There is an implied equation of the poor with children, as those who do not know and cannot choose better, so "we" have to know and choose for them. And while that is true to in some respects for our children; I do not think it is true for the poor.

My main problem is that it is not just the poor who are getting fat (off of sugary sodas, bad carbs, etc). The percentages are higher among the poor, but the problem cuts across class divides. Everyone is getting fatter (though there is some evidence that the rate of increase has stabilized recently). We have to be careful of position those that are fat as an other over there instead of us over here.

On a personal level, since I've cut out sugary soda as a daily beverage (I occasionally have a coke as a dessert like treat), and that is pretty much the only thing I've done in terms of my diet or exercise, I've lost 15 pounds that I have kept off easily.