The current worldwide obesity problem has gotten to the point that government bodies have considered, and in some cases implemented, taxes on “unhealthy” foods. Although unhealthy is defined differently for everyone, most can agree that sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda would fall under that category, and not without good reason. Certainly Kelly Brownell from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Yale University would agree, as he was the first to propose that a penny-per-ounce excise tax could reduce consumption of sugared beverages by more than 10%. This begs the question, what type of taxation would be most effective? There are essentially two types of taxes: inclusive and exclusive. The former means that the tax is included in the list price so that a $1.00 item with a 10% tax would show $1.10 on the price tag, while the latter is the standard sales tax whereby the tax amount is...
