Mayor Bloomberg’s soda ban and taxes on soft drinks are ineffective policy snares and represent a monumental threat to Americans’ treasured freedom to eat and drink what they—not government bureaucrats and politicians—want, writes Richard B. McKenzie. Plus, Michael Tomasky disagrees—why the mayor is right.
Richard B. McKenzie is the author of HEAVY! The Surprising Reasons America Is the Land of the Free—And the Home of the Fat and Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies, And Other Pricing Puzzles. He is also professor emeritus in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.
The Wrong Cure
How to burn off all those holiday calories? Economist Richard B. McKenzie recommends 10 counterintuitive ideas.
Americans are fatter than ever, but Prof. Richard McKenzie says it’s our economic and political freedoms that have led us here.