Would You Like A Tax With Those Fries?
Happy Birthday, McDonald’s.
On a related note, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is the latest political figure to float the idea of a “fast food tax,” the newest incarnation of the “sin” tax. The reasoning is that fast foods, which tend to be higher in fat and cholesterol than other types of food, are unhealthy, and therefore worthy of special government attention.
The Detroit Free Press editorial page goes Kilpatrick one better, however, suggesting that the government “tax take-out food statewide -- but by calories, not cost.”
Now of course the Christian tradition views gluttony as a sin. But as Thomas Aquinas writes, “Gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire.” And in this case, it is worth asking which is more gluttonous: the fast food consumer who orders a combo meal, or the State which constantly seeks new ways to feed its ever-voracious appetite.
McDonald’s cumple 50 años . "Los arcos dorados de McDonald están en todas partes y el viernes se cumplirán 50 años desde que un vendedor de máquinas de batidos de leche y helado abrió su primer restaurante en este suburbio de Chicago." [ Yahoo ] Más>> McDonald’s cuenta actualmente con más de 28 mil restaurantes en todo el mundo y 45 millones de consumidores diarios. Una empresa que sabe orientarse al cliente y a su accionista: "Instead of opening lots of new restaurants, McDonald's has switched to generating more sales from its existing ones. This year, some 90% of McDonald's growth is likely to come from incremental sales at its existing restaurants, compared with around half last year. Last year, its restaurants worldwide generated an additional $400m to take annual positive cashflow to $3.3 billion. In September, McDonald's said it would use its cash pile to boost its annual dividend for the second consecutive year, pay down $600m-700m in debt and spend up to $1.6 billion opening some new restaurants (often in places like China), but mostly in doing up its existing ones". [ Economist.com ] Más >> Y a celebrarlo con buenos resultados: "El grupo McDonald´s elevó un 4,6% su cifra de negocio en el primer trimestre, en datos comparables, lo que supone alcanzar un octavo trimestre consecutivo de crecimiento, indicó hoy el grupo en un comunicado. McDonald´s estimó que el beneficio por acción en los primeros tres meses se situará en torno a los 0,56 dólares, un 40% más..." [ Europa Press ] Más >> Y como anotan en el Blog del Acton Institute para los histéricos nutricionistas que quieren imponer con prohibiciones al resto de la sociedad sus modelos dietéticos: “Hoy por hoy, en el transcurso de la tradición Cristiana se ve la gula como un pecado . Pero como Santo Tomás de Aquino escribió : "la gula no es ningún deseo de comer o beber, sino un deseo inmoderado", y en este caso, tiene mayor peso la pregunta de quién tiene mayor gula: el consumidor de fast food que pide un pack de comida, o el Estado que continuamente busca nuevas formas de alimentar su voraz apetito.” [ Acton Institute PowerBlog ] Más>>
Weblog: Jorge ValínTracked: Apr 16, 13:22
Fast Food Tax Redux As I alerted you to more than three weeks ago, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has proposed a 2% tax on fast food restaurants, in a vain attempt to cover the city’s fiscal woes. Here’s a sneak preview to this week’s A
Weblog: Acton Institute PowerBlogTracked: May 10, 09:57