Is Bloomberg still a Capitalist?

Is Mayor Bloomberg asking us, the general public, if we are smart enough to care for ourselves?”  It’s so odd to me that a capitalist worth 22 billion from the founding of his own company is proposing legislation to ban sugary drinks over 16 ounces in size. I’ll assume the best intentions in Mayor Bloomberg but, in doing so, I’m still left with a disturbing feeling. For instance, do I really want our system of laws and enforcement used to make a statement or, do I want our legal system held in reverence?  Or, is the proposed ban truly the best solution and the reality I must accept is that people are so dumb that they won’t figure out a way to get their sugary fix?  By the way, the proposed law doesn’t apply to free refills.

Perplexed by this story, I could immediately think of several ways to legislate the issue in a way a capitalist and most certainly a politician might prefer.

Idea 1:  Affirmative Sugar Action – Create requirements for low calorie/sugar drinks to be served as options in restaurants and grocers. Enforce a sort of affirmative action policy with punitive damages that ensures the big soda guys aren’t monopolizing distribution.

Idea 2:  Green Sugar Subsidies - Create tax breaks for start-up companies trying to break into the category of healthy, taste-good beverages. We could have a Sodalyndra scandal to boot.

Idea 3: Bloomberg Care – Allow insurers to raise premiums on the self inflicted morbidly obese and offer counseling services to address potential underlying psychological issues.

Idea 4: Free 16 oz Markets – Let some whippersnapper entrepreneur allow his restaurant patrons to order any dish/drink combo with a selected maximum sugar/calorie content. They can then make a billion dollars with the restaurant chain and run for Mayor.

Idea 5: Soda Wars - Well, if all else fails we can try prohibition again. Sure it didn’t work out so great last time but, AIG is getting back into insuring subprime synthetic CDOs so I say…..what could go wrong?

After reveling in my solutions that any capitalist or politician would love, I then thought to myself, why wouldn’t a self-made billionaire Mayor think of similar possibilities?  Well, maybe my ideas are worse than his or,…..maybe I just don’t understand what the distracting headline grabbing proposal is meant to draw my attention away from. 

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