What I post below is a transcript of my arguments regarding obesity during a conversation over MSN with a friend. (so I apologise for the odd grammar and weird "feel" of the rant) For those of you who aren't aware, the United States and, to a lesser but still concerning extent, Canada are undergoing an epidemic of fat people who are placing huge strains on many sectors of the economy and general life.
I don't know how things are in Europe for sure, but i can guess they don't really have this problem of over-consumption due to a more dense and dare I say cosmopolitan population which has never experienced the frontier "me" mentality which North America needs to grow out of.
% of population which is obese (OECD countries). The data dates range from 1996 to 2003, according to Wikipedia (not a reliable source, but it's a good rough guess)
If the entire thing doesn't show, hust follow this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bmi30chart.png
Without further ado....
So here’s the thing about the obesity epidemic raging across the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada. Like most things, ti’s a complex problem which cannot have any single solution.
First, those who think it’s a personal choice which affects only themselves may have a point. A person’s body is their own business, right? They can choose to mess it up in anyway they want. Well, yes, but only to a certain extent. Society in general suffers when people are unhealthy. Especially in Canada, where any medical problems which the person might encounter are paid for by the tax payers. When someone slowly kills themselves and goes to the hospital, I end up paying for their treatment. It is my business, and I say it must stop.
There are a few sources to the problem:
Children are learning not to exercise from a young age. Parents work too much and begin to feel guilty about not spending enough time with their kids. They therefore become over-protective when they are actually able to parent them, and forbid to simply let kids be kids. Instead of actually letting their kids play outside and develop healthy habits, parents are letting the TV and video games raise their children. Kids grow up thinking that parking their asses in from of the TV is the only way to spent free time; ergo they become fat tubs of lard.
Food is too inexpensive. No, scratch that. Bad food is too inexpensive. A bottle of pop costs less than bottled water (don’t get me started on bottled water….damn rip off). A bag of chips is more readily available than potatoes. Taxes need to be levied on junk food. It needs to become a luxury item that regular people can rarely afford. The money gained from such taxes could be used to subsidize healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables. Most good economists will tell you that the best way to manipulate buying habits is to create incentives for consumers. This will do just that. Yes, it may be tragic that the welfare queen with 4 pieces of crotch fruit won’t be able to afford a cake and three bottles of Pepsi each time goes shopping, but perhaps we could, instead of giving welfare and family allowance cheques, give food stamps. The stamps could only be exchanged for real food, and thus we could at least ensure that the kids would be getting healthy food. Is this humiliating for the welfare person? Yep. Too damn bad. The program is supposed to be a method by which unfortunate people can survive, not a steady income to do what you want with. Who knows, maybe it would create a little incentive for this kind of person to improve their lot in life and get off welfare. Of course, most would probably just sell the food stamps to smarter people and buy more junk.
Of course, it’s not all a problem of economics. Food on the market now is just plain crappy. Too much corn is being grown in North America (thanks a whole lot, US government, for subsidizing this crap and not letting regular supply/demand dictate what crops are grown) and the huge surplus needs to go somewhere. Overproduction is the worst thing ever for agriculture, because it leads to even more over production. When there’s too much corn, prices fall. When prices fall, farmers have to plant even more to make the same income. So there’s even more….you get the idea. All this excess corn has to go somewhere. Is it used to feed the millions of hungry people in Africa? Hell no. It’s all turned into high-fructose corn syrup and put in damn near every processed food item you can buy. This kind of fructose isn’t digested the same way as cane sugar; the body gets almost no energy from it and turns it immediately into fat. It’s bad stuff, and it’s in everything (this is more of a US problem than in Canada, thanks to our farmers’ concentration on wheat and canola)
Finally, people don’t know how to cook. Schools have stopped teaching basic survival skills to kids, and they’re helpless. Many people simply don’t know how to cook and therefore HAVE to eat in restaurants all the time. Both boys and girls should be taught how to prepare simple, healthy meals from a young age. I heard recently that the local food bank would rather someone donate a bag of French fries than a 50lb bag of potatoes because people can read the directions on the fries and cook them. How can someone not know how to cook a damned potato? There’s almost no way you can screw it up!
Finally, people don’t walk anymore. If people actually walked places, they’d be getting easy exercise. But they don’t. They drive cars. Why? Gasoline is still, at $1.25/L, too cheap. People need a bit more incentive to NOT drive. They could even take public transit and walk to and from the bus stops! But that’s a whole other rant for another time.
(again, my mild dyslexia sometimes leads to typos in IM conversations....sorry)
I don't know how things are in Europe for sure, but i can guess they don't really have this problem of over-consumption due to a more dense and dare I say cosmopolitan population which has never experienced the frontier "me" mentality which North America needs to grow out of.
% of population which is obese (OECD countries). The data dates range from 1996 to 2003, according to Wikipedia (not a reliable source, but it's a good rough guess)
If the entire thing doesn't show, hust follow this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Bmi30chart.png
Without further ado....
So here’s the thing about the obesity epidemic raging across the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada. Like most things, ti’s a complex problem which cannot have any single solution.
First, those who think it’s a personal choice which affects only themselves may have a point. A person’s body is their own business, right? They can choose to mess it up in anyway they want. Well, yes, but only to a certain extent. Society in general suffers when people are unhealthy. Especially in Canada, where any medical problems which the person might encounter are paid for by the tax payers. When someone slowly kills themselves and goes to the hospital, I end up paying for their treatment. It is my business, and I say it must stop.
There are a few sources to the problem:
Children are learning not to exercise from a young age. Parents work too much and begin to feel guilty about not spending enough time with their kids. They therefore become over-protective when they are actually able to parent them, and forbid to simply let kids be kids. Instead of actually letting their kids play outside and develop healthy habits, parents are letting the TV and video games raise their children. Kids grow up thinking that parking their asses in from of the TV is the only way to spent free time; ergo they become fat tubs of lard.
Food is too inexpensive. No, scratch that. Bad food is too inexpensive. A bottle of pop costs less than bottled water (don’t get me started on bottled water….damn rip off). A bag of chips is more readily available than potatoes. Taxes need to be levied on junk food. It needs to become a luxury item that regular people can rarely afford. The money gained from such taxes could be used to subsidize healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables. Most good economists will tell you that the best way to manipulate buying habits is to create incentives for consumers. This will do just that. Yes, it may be tragic that the welfare queen with 4 pieces of crotch fruit won’t be able to afford a cake and three bottles of Pepsi each time goes shopping, but perhaps we could, instead of giving welfare and family allowance cheques, give food stamps. The stamps could only be exchanged for real food, and thus we could at least ensure that the kids would be getting healthy food. Is this humiliating for the welfare person? Yep. Too damn bad. The program is supposed to be a method by which unfortunate people can survive, not a steady income to do what you want with. Who knows, maybe it would create a little incentive for this kind of person to improve their lot in life and get off welfare. Of course, most would probably just sell the food stamps to smarter people and buy more junk.
Of course, it’s not all a problem of economics. Food on the market now is just plain crappy. Too much corn is being grown in North America (thanks a whole lot, US government, for subsidizing this crap and not letting regular supply/demand dictate what crops are grown) and the huge surplus needs to go somewhere. Overproduction is the worst thing ever for agriculture, because it leads to even more over production. When there’s too much corn, prices fall. When prices fall, farmers have to plant even more to make the same income. So there’s even more….you get the idea. All this excess corn has to go somewhere. Is it used to feed the millions of hungry people in Africa? Hell no. It’s all turned into high-fructose corn syrup and put in damn near every processed food item you can buy. This kind of fructose isn’t digested the same way as cane sugar; the body gets almost no energy from it and turns it immediately into fat. It’s bad stuff, and it’s in everything (this is more of a US problem than in Canada, thanks to our farmers’ concentration on wheat and canola)
Finally, people don’t know how to cook. Schools have stopped teaching basic survival skills to kids, and they’re helpless. Many people simply don’t know how to cook and therefore HAVE to eat in restaurants all the time. Both boys and girls should be taught how to prepare simple, healthy meals from a young age. I heard recently that the local food bank would rather someone donate a bag of French fries than a 50lb bag of potatoes because people can read the directions on the fries and cook them. How can someone not know how to cook a damned potato? There’s almost no way you can screw it up!
Finally, people don’t walk anymore. If people actually walked places, they’d be getting easy exercise. But they don’t. They drive cars. Why? Gasoline is still, at $1.25/L, too cheap. People need a bit more incentive to NOT drive. They could even take public transit and walk to and from the bus stops! But that’s a whole other rant for another time.
(again, my mild dyslexia sometimes leads to typos in IM conversations....sorry)
