Special Interests Win Again: Beverage Edition

NY's proposed soda tax has been dropped. I was never wild about the specific measure, studies show that any type of soda consumption is related to obesity even if by different mechanisms so sugary soda shouldn't be singled out, but I do favor moving the tax regime towards taxing bads rather than goods so favored this on tax on general grounds. Of course, since particular interests can usually trump the general interest these kind of taxes are extremely hard to pass and we have one more piece of evidence in favor of this view.

Or you could also phrase it as I have done earlier, people like to think how they live (or want to live) is virtuous and should be supported, it's those that ask them to change that are misanthropic and evil. The good guy usually favors the way things are against the villian who wants change (though the good guy often claims to want to change things back to how they were as well as an alternative to this).