Fast Food With Higher Taxes

Fast food is consumed in a widespread manner around the world lately since it is effortless and fast to prepare and eat yet it causes several health problems and sometimes results in death. For this reason, some people claim governments should intervene with this situation by taking certain measures such as excising people who consume fast food too much. However, I disagree with this opinion as restrictions and punishments are not effective and deterrent solutions to change the behaviour. Instead, governments should advertise healthy food and reward people who prefer to consume it. Firstly, the argument that governments should impose a tax on fast food is flawed. Because everyone is free to eat what they want even though it is unhealthy. Prohibitions and limitations are the easiest way to apply a rule yet not a democratic one. Furthermore, restrictions are usually useless and do not change the behavior in the long term due to human nature. For instance, when I was a child, my parents forbade me to go to bed late. All of a sudden, going to bed late became a tempting misbehavior to me and I started to sleep later than usual. Hence, if the government requests an additional charge from people, eating fast food would be considered as an attractive activity. Secondly, there is a better way to prevent people from eating unhealthy food. Governments should promote and advertise a well-balanced diet through television and the internet. Additionally, they should ensure that markets sell healthy food at more affordable prices. To sum up, there is a widespread consensus that fast food consumption needs to be reduced significantly around the world yet, it should be in an encouraging and rewarding way rather than forcing.