I am the son of a bodega owner. My daycare growing up was the cardboard box from paper towels when my mom attended customers at the counter. My father worked a day job for someone else and restocked the store shelves at night. As soon as I could hold a broom, I was on clean up detail everyday after school. My sister could work a register before she could write. Why did my family endure these hardship and work so hard?

It was the only way to economically survive in New York City. I know my story is not unique. It is the reason why I can say that the soda tax is wrong. No Ph.D. needed.

People, especially whose like my father and his customers, make their food choices on the economics of their lives. Their first thought is, “What can my family afford?” followed by, “Will this fill their empty stomachs?” The few cents, that some discount as trivial burden, is the thin line that defines their poverty. The pennies this tax proposes were my school lunch. The nickels were my sister’s dress for her Quinceañera. Both our college educations were paid for in dimes.

In New York State, there already is a tax on the soda. The 6% sales tax, more in the city, on all food purchases. Further more, there is the five cents bottle deposit which the state retains millions in as an unofficial levy. Now our elect officials are suggesting a further tax.

This tax is on the poor and the working middle class. These are the people who buy the majority of the soda sold. This is the majority who will pay the tax in bodegas and convenience stores across the state. If the governor and all our elected officials really care about our waistlines, they should look to help us with our bottom lines.

There are ways to both spur economic growth and promote physical wellbeing. Economic growth leads to collecting more tax revenue for the state and alleviating poverty of its inhabitants. This should be the goal of every elected official in these recessionary times.