Thought on American Policy

Original Link here: Is it fair to fine fat people for not dieting?

The jist of it is, should overweight people be fined, or receive reduced benefits (if they are on state-funded healthcare) if they don't follow the doctor's prescribed dietary regime?

America is sickening because nobody seems to have the brains to see how interconnected their social problems are. As if they are trying their best to not see what's obvious because that would imply they have to accept and change a few hard truths.

I see it like this - there are next to no standards in the food production industry, and according to films such as Food, Inc. all of the watchdog agencies such as the FDA have been so reduced to be ineffective and powerless that corporations can determine what is ok to produce (and how), irrespective if it's healthy or not.

The cheapest, most affordable food is entirely unhealthy, basically sugar, fat, and flavouring that makes it taste good. Marketing slogans just say "...should be just a part of a balanced diet" but don't make said diet affordable. No wonder there is a health epidemic.

Combine this with poor municipal services, such as public transport / bike-friendly cities, and the fact that historically everyone wanted his own piece of land and therefore the urban sprawl is great (i.e. population density is low), and it's no wonder that America is full of sedentary fat people.

And now it's their responsibility to fight this uphill battle, which makes everyone else happy, because you can just blame fat people and never have to deal with deep-rooted problems that aren't as simple as finding a scapegoat.

But that to me is the modern American way. It used to be a good country. Now it's just a country of greedy cutthroats that don't think of the concept of 'society'. Any time you do propose things like this, you get people calling you a socialist, which ironically, I doubt most Americans even know what that is, other than some bad word that you don't want to be.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not a big fan of obese people. It's pretty gross actually, but don't set a person up to fail, then blame them when they do. That's just sadistic.