US people getting fatter, faster
So the government released a report and news media has once again started another round of pointing out that US getting fatter and fatter here, and here, and here, and here, and here (ok I guess we all get the picture now)…
I agree that we as a nation are overweight. We are a rich nation and we eat way too much. For the sake of the statistics, I would like to point out that somewhere around year 2000 the scale, by which normal body weight is measured, was changed. The change instantly made ~ 20% more people obese/overwieght overnight (strange enough, you don’t hear about that when the news media prints their graphs). Notice the huge increase in the CDC’s 2003 graph. I’m yet to see a line graph year over year (I will bet the huge spike in 2000 would make people ask why it’s there).
Now on to my point… I’m hearing statements that the US government isn’t doing enough about the fattening of America. I’m not even sure where to start with this one. I’m not sure what people think the US government could/will do. A good conspicuous consumption analogy would be energy use. We use more of it now than ever (and we are starting to pay the price at the pump), and government efforts to reduce usage have been mostly useless. How can you expect the government to convince people to not have that extra piece of cake, that mid-day soda, or to order the half-rack of ribs instead of the full rack, when they cannot even convince people that it might not be a good idea to buy a SUV that gets 12 miles to the gallon. Even funnier is that people do not seem to remember that there was a gasoline availability issue in the mid 1970’s, and that world is at least as unstable now as it was then.
Thus bringing into question the ability of many people in the US to plan for their own future, remember what has happened in the past, and to take personal responsibility for what they do now (My view: We are a relatively short-sighted population who think someone else is to blame for our ills, and since we cannot be expected to care for ourselves we want the government to do it for us).
Wow, what a rant… In my next rant I might question how government organizations can issue reports with impressive statistics, and get big sensational headlines nearly every time (thus giving the best chance of full coffers come budget time, which if I remember correctly is just around the corner).
For safety the soapbox has now been returned to it’s under-seat position.
August 25th, 2005
Why should the government have any role in this at all? It is not a mommy state, people need to accept some personal responsibility. The market will respond in kind. Look at Atkins, people started doing it so companies starting selling it. Of course people couldn’t stick with it so now atkins is bankrupt.
I am really sick of hearing that it is the government is not doing enough to fix obesity, gas prices, prescription costs, baseball steriods etc..