(1) My understanding is that literal packs/shakers of salt sold in supermarkets would not be exempt from the sodium tax. But that raises more dramatic political problems (e.g. at a $0.3 per mg tax, that increases a 500g packet of salt by 100x), and I presume the per mg tax on literal raw salt would have to be far lower. In general, I do agree that substitution with home food is a worry, though there will also be frictions (i.e. not perfect substitutes because of the social element, time needed to cook, etc).
(2) I’m not sure if this is a significant concern—it depends on your frame of reference, and one could easily argue the opposite (e.g. more aggressive sin taxes normalizes them/shifts the overton window, so even if the extreme version gets rejected, people see the more conventional ones like on tobacco and alcohol as reasonable by comparison). In general, I’m not sure if we have strong reason to believe one way or another.
(3) I think I’m fairly deferential to the scientific consensus in this area, which seems strong—it’s something I’ll definitely look more closely into via expert intervews.
(4) & (5) Generally, direct delivery (whether of medication or general checkups/treatments) is a lot more expensive due to (a) actually requiring ongoing resources, and (b) counterfactual costliness, for an EA charity. I agree that they could be promising, but in the context of a shallow review I made the call to focus on what seemed to be the most impactful solution—I could be wrong!
Thanks for the feedback!
(1) My understanding is that literal packs/shakers of salt sold in supermarkets would not be exempt from the sodium tax. But that raises more dramatic political problems (e.g. at a $0.3 per mg tax, that increases a 500g packet of salt by 100x), and I presume the per mg tax on literal raw salt would have to be far lower. In general, I do agree that substitution with home food is a worry, though there will also be frictions (i.e. not perfect substitutes because of the social element, time needed to cook, etc).
(2) I’m not sure if this is a significant concern—it depends on your frame of reference, and one could easily argue the opposite (e.g. more aggressive sin taxes normalizes them/shifts the overton window, so even if the extreme version gets rejected, people see the more conventional ones like on tobacco and alcohol as reasonable by comparison). In general, I’m not sure if we have strong reason to believe one way or another.
(3) I think I’m fairly deferential to the scientific consensus in this area, which seems strong—it’s something I’ll definitely look more closely into via expert intervews.
(4) & (5) Generally, direct delivery (whether of medication or general checkups/treatments) is a lot more expensive due to (a) actually requiring ongoing resources, and (b) counterfactual costliness, for an EA charity. I agree that they could be promising, but in the context of a shallow review I made the call to focus on what seemed to be the most impactful solution—I could be wrong!