The Political Economy of the Obesity Epidemic
A few weeks ago I was called upon to debate the idea of taxing big, high calorie soft drinks to help offset the high health costs of the American obesity epidemic. Since then, I been dipping a toe into this literature and finding it quite interesting. Given partisan gridlock, money in politics, and filibuster abuse, nothing’s easy in public policy these days. And when you start regulating food policy, you bump into the personal freedom/responsibility issues that always loom large in our debates.
But at least in terms of the economic arguments, there’s low hanging (and highly nutritious) fruit in terms of negative externalities, Pigouvian taxation, and “do no harm” legislation.
Before I get to those points, however, a quick review of some relevant facts of the case. Here’s an excellent new infographic from the Institute of Medicine. While there’s predictable controversy over what to do about this, there’s little disagreement over a) the facts, and b) their negative implications for both health and the costs to society (see also this fact sheet from the CDC). Policy-wise, this gives this epidemic a leg-up over, say, global warming, where we still have to argue the science with deniers.
- 1/3 of kids and 2/3 of adults are overweight or obese (in each case, about half of those shares are obese, so about 1/3 of adults are obese and about 17% of kids).
- Trends over the last decade have drifted up, mostly among men and boys.
- CDC: “No state has met the nation’s goal to lower obesity prevalence to 15%. The number of states with an obesity prevalence of 30% or more has increased to 12 states in 2010. In 2009, nine states had obesity rates of 30% or more. In 2000, no state had an obesity prevalence of 30% or more.”