Posted on 07/07/2013 6:10:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last year, I showed an image of evolutionary stages that was so accurate that it would earn approval even from many strict creationists.
Here’s a new image of evolutionary stages that sets the stage for today’s discussion. Simply stated, Americans are becoming bigger. In some cases, a lot bigger.
Is this trend toward greater obesity a bad thing? As a reader asks, is it something that requires a government response?
The answer is yes…and no.
Libertarians believe people should be free to make their own decisions so long as they’re not infringing on the rights of others. And that includes the right to eat too much and exercise too little.
But the “yes” part of the answer is that we can think obesity is unfortunate and we can encourage our friends and family members to live healthier lifestyles. And if we’re willing to be pests and to run the risk of being told to mind our own business, we can even encourage strangers to shape up.
The “no” part of the answer refers to whether the government somehow should get involved. I shared a great video from Reason TV several years ago that explained why paternalistic anti-obesity programs don’t work. And just this week, one of my colleagues at the Cato Institute, Michael Tanner, addressed this issue. Here’s some of what he wrote for National Review.
Recently the American Medical Association declared that it will consider obesity a disease. …the AMA’s move is a symptom of a disease that is seriously troubling our society: the abdication of personal responsibility and an invitation to government meddling. …the AMA’s move is actually a way for its members to receive more federal dollars, by getting obesity treatments covered under government health plans. A bipartisan group of congressmen has already seized on the AMA declaration as they push for Medicare coverage of diet drugs. Observers also expect an effort to expand Medicare reimbursement for bariatric surgery, a.k.a. stomach stapling. And there will almost certainly be pressure to mandate coverage for these things by private insurance carriers, under both state laws and the Affordable Care Act. …After the AMA decision, John Morton, treasurer of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, was almost giddy, calling the AMA decision a “tipping point” and adding that “now coverage policy must catch up to that consensus.” Since a typical bariatric surgery costs as much as $40,000, that could be interpreted as a warning for all of us to get out our wallets. In the end, we will be paying more, through either taxes or higher premiums.
And don’t forget that the price of treatments such as surgery almost surely will climb as there’s more “third-party payer,” so our taxes and premiums will climb by a lot more than what it cost to provide these services today.
But that’s only part of the story. Since government is picking up the tab, that gives politicians a green light (at least in their minds) to pass laws and rules designed to control and influence our behavior.
…expanded Medicare and insurance coverage socialize the cost of treating obesity, thereby inviting all manner of government mischief. After all, if being fat is not our fault, the blame must lie with food companies, advertising, or other things that need to be regulated. And if you and I have to pay for the food and exercise choices of others, we should have a say in those choices. Already, Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, has cited the AMA declaration to boost his group’s efforts to ban junk food and tax soft drinks. …The nanny state can now claim medical backing.
Mayor Bloomberg doubtlessly thinks this is a wonderful idea. Maybe he can ban snack food as well as 17 oz. sodas.
Heck, why not have a cop in every house to make sure we consume 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day? Actually, I shouldn’t say that too loud. Given the Supreme Court’s Obamacare decision, there’s apparently no limit to the federal government’s power to control our behavior through the tax code, so I’d hate to give politicians any more crazy ideas.
If you think I’m engaging in a bit of hyperbole, just remember that New York City already has gone after bake sales for peddling sweets.
So what’s the big picture? Mike nails it, explaining that the medicalization of obesity is symptomatic of the effort to undermine individual responsibility.
Much of public policy these days seems designed to eliminate personal responsibility. Take efforts to reduce poverty, for example. How much of poverty is due to poor lifestyle choices? We don’t want to blame the poor, nor should we forget that there are those, especially children, trapped in poverty by circumstances beyond their control. But we also know the keys to getting out of or staying out of poverty: (1) finish school; (2) do not get pregnant outside marriage; and (3) get a job, any job, and stick with it. Unfortunately, much of the welfare state we have constructed is perversely designed in ways that end up encouraging destructive behaviors.
In other words, the welfare state hurts the poor, as Thomas Sowell explained the other day. Though I suppose fairness requires me to admit that there are those who benefit from all the various income-redistribution programs. A vast army of bureaucrats get very comfortable salaries to administer these program, and these poverty pimps, as Walter Williams describes them, enjoy much higher levels of compensation than they could earn in the economy’s productive sector.
But I’m guilty, once again, of digressing. Let’s get to the rest of Mike’s final point.
Big government reduces all of us to the status of children. We have no responsibility for anything in our lives; therefore, government must take care of us. All we have to do, like children, is give up the freedom to make our own choices — good or bad.
Amen. A “good choice” isn’t good if it’s the result of coercion. Paternalists sometime have admirable goals, but they err when they want to turn big government into big daddy and big mommy.
P.S. Several readers have noticed that I’m now writing one post a day instead of two and have asked whether this is a permanent change. The answer is yes. With all the other things I’m trying to juggle – researching and writing, dealing with Capitol Hill, talking to the press, giving speeches, etc – this seems like the best way to allocate my time. Particularly now that my posts tend to be a lot longer and more substantive than when I began blogging.
P.P.S. Since we’re on the topic of obesity, it goes without saying that our real problem is bloated government, not bloated people. Which is why I always enjoy cartoons that portray DC as the true home of gluttony. For good examples, see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Bump to your post so that I can research this product.
About a year ago, my husband and I decided that our family would go on a real food diet. We ate pretty healthy to begin with, but we were relying on some processed foods using the “it’s not that bad” excuse. We now make our own bread, flour tortillas, cereal, mayonnaise, ketchup, etc. We’ve been able to cut out so much processed food this way. I really believe it’s been a great decision for us. Plus we can avoid soy and corn products, which I really feel are pretty bad for us in the quantities that processed foods contain. Just my 2¢! No scientific background, just an average mommy using her own observations!
Rent seeking health care industry...
How about “should the government be interfering so much in the affairs of the citizens?” The answer to that is easy, {expletive} no! We don’t need some nanny, socialist, fascist-wannabe government telling us how to live our lives. Freedom, liberty, remember those concepts?
After the government goes on a diet and loses about 50% or more of its own fat butt, then they can explain obesity to us.
chips, diet soda, female hormones flooding the water supply.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness except when such pursuit involves an unhealthy diet and lifestyle that could lead to anything other than a slim, fit, metrosexual body —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed for the first century of so until the gullible governed can be hoodwinked or coerced into accepting a bloated, tyrannical nanny-state, -
Government should do “something” if you want people to get fatter.
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sure she says “It’s because I have a glandular problem.” ....yea, the gland located between her nose and her chin is hyperactive!
Hear, Hear! All-ah snackbar!
What is there to debate?
There are a lot of obese people out there who choose to be obese.
I think its a bad choice and it bothers the heck out of me and maybe even grosses me out when I see some obese people.
But I need to get over that because I wasn’t put on this planet to be angry with other people and lashing out at them by wanting to use the power of government.
I have my own issues to take care of.
I need to mind my own business and the government needs to stay out of everybody’s business.
I think obese people need to change but its not my job to control them or hurt them. They are already hurting because they choose food as a pain reliever like others choose to use alcohol, drugs, prescription drugs, gambling, credit cards, pornography and the list goes on.
The obese have issues to deal with and they have to deal with the issues themselves.
No. But since they’ve taken over health care (or will have soon), they will.
“Should the Government Do Something about Obesity?”
Absolutely!
First assemble a “Gang of Fourteen” Senators and Representatives, headed by Gerald Nadler. Have them write a 1,835 page piece of legislation called “Healthier Obesity Reduction: Students, Educators, Seniors Heading Into Tomorrow” (acronym available upon request), more commonly to be referred to as the “Comprehensive Obesity Bill”. Pass said bill in the dead of the night after every legislator has had a chance to add a pet project into it, and be sure to slip in a few new surveillance features to make sure nobody’s sneaking a Big Mac into their bedroom at night.
Allocate $457 billion that we don’t have (but can either print or borrow from the Chinese) to implement the program.
Hire 27,000 new IRS agents to enforce the bill, and force every business with more than 3 employees to establish workplace obesity reduction guidelines, with monthly reporting (we’ll keep the forms down to 17 pages) to insure timely compliance.
Ask Michelle Obama to provide menu suggestions, and then require every school, hospital, church supper and the like to enforce them with the threat of withdrawal of federal funds and/or tax exempt status if that requirement is not followed.
And that’s just the start!
Sorry, but these are two completely different subjects
Thank you. That was my first thought when I read the article. It infuriates me to see these trashy looking obese people at my supermarket at the start of the month filling their cart with crap I won't buy or eat myself, even though I have to pay for theirs. Nothing healthy in the cart. No fruits nor vegetables. Mostly sugared soft drinks, cake, frozen pizza. And no, orange soda is not a fruit, Cheez Doodles are not a dairy product nor a good source of calcium. The government is giving them our money to buy them crap so they can get fat.
I think that the gov’t pushing people to eat more carbs and less fat and protein has caused some of the problem. Everyone is different, and I know I do much better on a high protein diet. I have seen some people literally have no fat in their diet and I tell them that their brain needs some fat to function.
NO!
This is going to end with concentration camps, fat camps, and when that fails to reeducate the morbidly obese, they will build gas chambers. A society that has so easily accepted abortion shouldn’t have a problem with getting rid of fat, ugly people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
