Is NYC Mayor Bloomberg a Nanny?

Posted By elissa on Jun 3, 2012 | 1 comment

I’m sure you’ve all heard of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sugary drink servings larger than 16 oz.

The image at the left is the beverage industry’s response. And the industry’s not alone: I’ve seen a fair number of public denunciations across the political spectrum. The consensus seems to be that this is “nanny statism” at its absolute worst.

Pardon me… but I just don’t see it. In the long run, it may not be all that effective, but for your average, soda-swilling citizen of New York City, it represents no more than a minor inconvenience. The proposed ban permits refills and additional drink purchases, after all, so in the end, people will still be able to drink as much soda as they want.

Some “ban.” Seriously, I don’t get what the fuss is about.

…Which is why I got a chuckle out of this Gawker article on the subject. No, I don’t like the insulting title, and the language is NSFW, but I can get onboard with this:

Now, you can certainly debate the effectiveness of this law all you like. You can still get free refills. You can still buy multiple drinks. You can still buy big things of juice, which is just as bad for you as soda. But there are two important things you should know. First off, I can tell you anecdotally that sometimes, this kind of law works on people. Posting calorie counts on a menu really does make you think twice about ordering a tuna melt (it’s also fun to figure out which item has the most calories and then express shock when it turns out to be something innocuous like a salmon salad). To that end, perhaps getting rid of extremely large sodas will result in people getting small drinks and then being too cheap or too lazy to buy a second. It’s probably worth a shot, because my second point is this…

SODA IS SHIT. It’s absolute shit. I love Coke more than anything, but I know full well that it’s poison. It destroys your teeth. It increases your appetite. It turns children in evil rage Gremlins. It offers nothing in the way of nutritional value. I have a cousin who used to work for UPS and whenever they had to clean the inside of the UPS truck, they doused the inside with Coke because it acted as a corrosive agent. That’s how fucking horrible soda is for you. It has no business being sold in public schools. Any soda lobbyist telling you about the benefits of drinking their product is a liar and a fucking scumbag. We all know it’s bad for us, and yet we continue drinking it (take it from someone who is currently unable to stop drinking Coke Zero).

So maybe it’s not such a bad thing if a city official, who was freely ELECTED by his own constituents, tries his best to curb its influence. It doesn’t make this country a member of the Warsaw Pact if that happens.

I really can’t argue with that. 😉