How many people drink one soda per day in the type affected by the regulation though? Even those that want more would just buy more in bottles unaffected by it. I myself never buy the max size of a fountain drink anyway because drinking all that at once gives me a stomachache. I can't see how it can make any actual difference in total consumption.
What is the cost of banning oversized sodas?
Few people would decide not to eat restaurant food because the soda size is limited. Average ticket and transaction prices would probably not fall, if the restaurant has any pricing expertise. If the ban were effective, reduced soda consumption does not have lower marginal-utility over time (probably the opposite).
The marginal cost of the bill is virtually zero, but the health benefits could be substantial. Unfortunately, the economics of soda bans are not nearly enough to compensate for the gross intrusion of the nanny-state in our lives. As citizens, we'd prefer a tax. Perhaps, a sugar tax was the end game.
The soda ban was a dumb political move, but a disinterested educated aristocrat is not really interested in politics.
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