Sugary Drinks Ban Begs Question-- Who has the right do decide what you consume?
This opinion article was written by Michelle Minton who is the Fellow in Consumer Policy Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. She writes articles for FOX news. Her latest article is about how New York banned selling big cups of soda at restaurants, grocery and convenience stores due to the number of obese Americans. With this new policy, people are not allowed to purchase sodas that are greater than 16 ounces. What she believes the policy doesn't understand, is that there is no limit on how much soda a person can buy. For example, a person cannot buy a 20 ounce cup of soda, but they can purchase multiple 8 ounce sodas. She believes that this is not doing anything to the obesity in America except making it worse. Since the policy goes by ounces, not sugar content or fat content, all of the drinks that are considered healthy that are over 16 ounces can no longer be sold. Minton believes that this is not only going to decline the consumption of "healthy" drinks, but she also believes that small business companies are going to struggle because of it. Companies like "Honest Tea" that are only 80 calories, but are in a 16.9 ounce bottle, can no longer be purchased by residents of New York City.
I think that she was obviously prompted to write this article because she does not agree with the legislatures of New York City, and she does not think that the solution to obesity is banning certain drinks. In my opinion, her purpose of writing this is to show people (specifically those living in the New York area) who agree with the banning of drinks, the other side of it. Those who most likely agreed with it probably never understood what it actually meant. I think she did a good job at convincing me to look at the other side of the law, therefore I think most people probably did too.
Rhetorical Elements in the text:
Perspective
Diction
Argument
URL: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/14/sugary-drinks-ban-begs-question-who-has-right-to-decide-what-consume/
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