I'll concede that uncertainty has been developing in my stance on soda taxes. For me, they are such an obvious target — there's NOTHING essential about sugary sodas, and lots to argue against them.

But where does it stop?

Check out this monstrosity from Friendly's: The grilled cheese burger melt is two grilled cheese sandwiches that function as the roll for a big burger. It's nuts! People shouldn't eat shit like that. And yet, when I was an active food addict, I would have approved of eating it, or the equally overboard Hardee's SIX DOLLAR GRILLED CHEESE BACON THICKBURGER [caps from its website, which I decided not to retype, but chose to write this long explanation instead], even if I didn't run out and get one. If not that, then something just as gluttonous, certainly.

Do I have the right to each such things? Unquestionably.

The problem is that all this gluttony has public costs, even short of early death. A fatter nation is less productive, less secure (our military leaders have said that our extreme lack of physical fitness makes it harder to find servicemen and -women), and has much higher health-care costs, which we all share. 

By default, we've taken the freedom trail regarding food, and it has had some pretty bad effects for individuals and for us collectively. We've tried public education — the food pyramid, for example — but it's wan at best, and has to compete against the billions that Hardee's and Friendly's and Coke and McDonald's and TGIFriday's and Denny's and IHOP and KFC and Burger King and Outback and Olive Garden and Taco Bell and Baskin Robbins and Arby's and In-and-Out and Sonic and Carl's Jr. and Wendy's and Dairy Queen and White Castle and Jack-in-the-Box and Applebee's and Macaroni Grill and Cheesecake Factory and Ruby Tuesday and Chili's and Uno and Bertucci's and P.F. Chang's and Fuddrucker's and Papa John's and Domino's and Maggiano's Little Italy and Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts spend to tell you to ignore that pyramid thingy.

This is a cost of freedom. Do we really just wait until individuals decide to change on their own, in the face of this avalanche of ads and food companies who strategize how to get us to spend more money on their food? 

How's that working out so far?

That's how I got to the soda tax in the first place. If we make healthier food easier to get, including by making it less expensive relative to the unhealthier food, e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e will be better off.

And yet, we let freedom stand in our way.