Wednesday 11 October 2017

A great day in Chicago

In what is undoubtedly the feelgood story of the week, officials in Cook County, Illinois overwhelmingly voted to repeal their hated soda tax after just two months. Cook County is the home of Chicago, America's third largest city, so this is kind of a big deal, even if the UK media chooses to ignore it.

I've written about it here for Spectator Health, so do pop over and read my article, but let's take a moment here to savour the defeat of that evil old fossil Michael Bloomberg who has been bankrolling soda tax campaigns all around America (and beyond). He's not short of money but even a billionaire must smart from pouring millions of dollars down the drain, as he has in Chicago.

In 2016, Bloomberg handed over $1 million for ads to build support for the tax, and then donated another $2 million in August 2017.

In September, Bloomberg funnelled in another $3 million to the pro-tax cause.

And two weeks ago, in an extraordinary act of hubris, he handed out a $2.5 million grant to some 'public health' researchers at the University of Illinois to study the effects of the tax.


Bloomberg therefore spent at least $6 million campaigning for a soda tax that died on its arse after two months. He then spent another $2.5 million to study its non-existent impact. Evidently, Bloomberg's efforts to change the law in another city were not appreciated...


Funny as this all is, Bloomberg could be using his fortune to do some good in the world and heal the sick, but he chooses to spend it on campaigns to make fizzy drinks a bit more expensive which are a waste of time whether they succeed or not. At best, they will fail and we can have a good laugh at him. At worst, they succeed and the cost of living goes up. Meanwhile, there are important medical services that could spend the money usefully.

Anyway, do read my Spectator piece.


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