New Soda Rules May Cause More Consumption

Everybody is talking about the new soda rules in New York. It seems you are no longer allowed to serve sodas of more than sixteen ounces, though you may serve more than one soda at a time. The reported aim of this rule is to decrease soda consumption, which theoretically will decrease the incidence of certain health problems. Unfortunately, I believe this rule will actually cause an increase in consumption.

Suppose you are in the habit of enjoying a twenty-one ounce soda with your burger (this is my usual amount). Sixteen ounces is too small, so you purchase two sixteen-ounce sodas, but two times sixteen is more than twenty-one; two times sixteen is thirty-two! If you are anything like me, you are poor at estimating when you have reached the twenty-one ounce mark and you abhor waste. I tend to eat (or drink) whatever is placed in front of me, so under the new rule, I would tend to drink more soda than before!

People need to understand that there are often unintended consequences to meddling with human behaviors in this way. Whatever else might be said about it, the rule was poorly thought out. I’m probably not the only one to have thought of this, either. I suspect that many soda vendors are secretly celebrating this new rule, and dreaming of all the additional soda they’ll sell, whether it all gets drunk or not (waste will probably also go up).

Anyways, that's my take on the situation. What do you think?