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Margot Sanger-Katz reports in the NYT that soda consumption is experiencing a serious and sustained decline as sales of full-calorie soda in the United States have plummeted by more than 25 percent over the past twenty years. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are actively trying to avoid the drinks that have been a mainstay of American culture and bottled water is now on track to overtake soda as the largest beverage category in two years. The changing patterns of soda drinking appear to come thanks, in part, to a loud campaign to eradicate sodas. School cafeterias and vending machines no longer contain regular sodas. Many workplaces and government offices have similarly prohibited their sale.
For many public health advocates, soda has become the new tobacco — a toxic product to be banned, taxed and stigmatized. "There will always be soda, but I think the era of it being acceptable for kids to drink soda all day long is passing, slowly," says Marion Nestle. "In some socioeconomic groups, it's over." Soda represents nearly 25% of the U.S. beverage market and its massive scale have guaranteed profit margins for decades. Historically, beverage preferences are set in adolescence, the first time that most people begin choosing and buying a favorite brand. But the declines in soda drinking appear to be sharpest among young Americans. "Kids these days are growing up with all of these other options, and there are some parents who say, 'I really want my kids to drink juice or a bottled water,' " says Gary A. Hemphill. "If kids grow up without carbonated soft drinks, the likelihood that they are going to grow up and, when they are 35, start drinking is very low."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Sunday October 04 2015, @02:47PM
No, it is not. For all the problems that soda has, it does not stink up the surroundings for others by making the air itself poisonous nor does it scatter non-biodegradable butts all over the ground to disturb others. .
If they want to make a real dent in smoking, in addition to plain packs, they need to implement a 10¢ or greater deposit on filters. That would reduce the amount of butts that the smokers seem to feel entitled to cast around and those that do get through in public have a greater chance of getting picked up if there is a deposit. I've even caught a few fish with cigarette butts in their stomachs
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 04 2015, @03:04PM
Instead of a 10 cent refund, how about a 100$ fine ( and i would love to see jail time too ) if you toss them onto the ground. It IS littering, which is illegal in most areas.
Most ( not all ) smokers i know have no respect for others around them, or the environment.
All that said i would be the last to say a person can't smoke due to rights and such, but please do it in your own home or car, not near me. Since i now live in a subdivision, I dont target practice in the back yard at 2am out of respect of my neighbors, you can do the same. ( i dont do it in my yard at all, but you get the point )
(Score: 4, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Sunday October 04 2015, @04:16PM
The deposit is probably easier to manage and cheaper for the society. We need less laws and court cases, not more. There is a reason several countries started legalizing weed, and it's not necessarily liberal mindset.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday October 04 2015, @07:14PM
<sarc Text="In this aspect, a large fine for murder is preferrable to a long, expensive, and often futile search for the criminal."/>
My point is that fines will create two parallel systems of laws; one for poor, and one for rich. The rich will become immune to punishment, as long as they have the money.
The main problem of the USA is that the country's laws are not enforced. Courts and prisons are nothing but one big revolving door. Nothing will improve until all criminals commit their crimes and are removed from the society for a very long time, up to infinity.
They want out earlier? No problem. Demonstrate Master's skills in science and technology in an area that you choose and that is wanted by employers. Take an exam, get asked something like this:
Write a compiler from this nonexistent language to this nonexistent hardware. Write an interpreter for this machine and a debugger; then implement the machine in VHDL and run it on this development board that we will provide. Solve a given problem of the industry (say, a travelling salesman) on this hardware and provide us with all the sources, compiled code, and everything. You have as long as you need to do that, but you will be locked up in a solitary confinement (an office) with all the necessary tools.
If the convict is ready and anxious to rejoin the society, he will leave on a level that won't require him to mug people for drug money. This is not easy for a barely literate person, but the modern society has no use for barely literate robbers. Life is not fair; but you will be given an opportunity to learn. Fail, and you won't get a second chance.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday October 04 2015, @11:14PM
Instead of a 10 cent refund, how about a 100$ fine ( and i would love to see jail time too )
Really, jail time for littering? Wow, no wonder so many Americans are in prison, if that's the attitude their fellow citizens have. (I'm going to go right on and assume that you're American).
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Monday October 05 2015, @04:04AM
The original minimal fines for littering pretty much got rid of the problem right off. When I was a kid, it was normal to toss trash out of car windows, and every ditch was full of garbage. Along came the $10 fine somewhere in the 1960s, and the problem vanished overnight. The only remaining "litterers" were those surreptitiously disposing of a large quantity of trash (funny how that evolved concurrent with municipal dumps ending "free trash" days)... so the fines were escalated. The problem shrank again. But legislators always feel that burning need to prove that they're "doing something" ...so the fines have continued to escalate.
I watched the fines crawl from $10 to $50 to $100 to $500, and last I looked in California the fine was $1000.
In Oregon, it's $6,250. For littering. (Tried to find one of the signs, but, effing changes to google maps...)
For comparison, in CA the fine for assault is $1000, and for assault on a police officer, $5000.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by penguinoid on Monday October 05 2015, @06:22AM
Community service picking up litter would be a much more appropriate punishment.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by timbojones on Sunday October 04 2015, @05:23PM
http://green-butts.com/ [green-butts.com]