A Modest -- and Slimming! -- Proposal

The Washington Post (Op Ed) ^ | 4/7/06 | John G. Sotos

[elkfersupper]

America is fat and getting fatter. Today 140 million American adults are overweight or obese. Their bodies carry 4 billion pounds of excess fat, the result of eating 14 trillion excess calories.

Numbers of this size belong in the domain of economists, not physicians. And therein lies the solution.

Medical and public health attempts to control obesity should continue, but it is time to add marketplace approaches. The first step is realizing that, nationally, weight gain is not a medical problem, it's a pollution problem.

[elkfersupper]

I honestly thought I was on another planet when I read this.

Well, it worked on tobacco.

This guy is serious. Public policies have succeeded in reducing air pollution. They can teach us how to reduce calorie pollution.

Enjoy.

[elkfersupper]

Ping.

[Darkwolf377]

Do you ever get the sense that some people simply have no idea what this country is about?

More evidence that our teachers are incapable of teaching our national identity and the founders' intentions, while they seem to have plenty of time to teach "tolerance" towards gay parents and such things which are better left to parents.

Or maybe I've got this all wrong, and some people just think that the government is there to regulate "the stupid people" aka everyone but an elite group of liberal humanists.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

I'm pretty certain that some day the relativity innocuous number of grams of fat on most food packages will become an additional tax:

Let's see 4g of fat. Looks like that will be another 4% added to the price!

[GSlob]

4 billion pounds of excessive fat, if converted into biodiesel, will be about 600 million gallons.

[elkfersupper]

4 billion pounds of excessive fat, if converted into biodiesel, will be about 600 million gallons.

An excellent idea. How much Soylent Green?

[elkfersupper]

I think you're right.

Too bad we can't tax air.

Some folks (like the author) are a waste of oxygen.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Okay, so you can't buy the brownies in the convenience section anymore, due to the grams of fat per ounce and its subsequent tax.

What's to stop budding pastry chefs at home from making brownies from scratch, and circumventing the fat tax? Last I checked, flour and cocoa were considered pretty incubus.

Oh... that's just too easy! The food Nazis will think of a punishment for them.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

We need to give the a new name:

The Nutri-Nazis!

[Frank_2001]

Yeah right, we listened to the environmentalists, now our cars produce practically no particulate emissions (which reflect sunlight) but produce tons of CO2 (hey, that 'greenhouse gas')! Oy vay...if we listen to the lifestyle Nazis we'll probably wind up starving to death.....

[Frank_2001]

From bathtub gin to bathtub brownies!;)

[Pan_Yans Wife]

innocuous, not incubus... error in the spell check.

[elkfersupper]

if we listen to the lifestyle Nazis we'll probably wind up starving to death.....

It's actually worse than that. They want us back in outhouses and oxcarts. Tried to get your hands on any antibiotics or decongestants lately?

[visualops]

some people just think that the government is there to regulate "the stupid people" aka everyone but an elite group of liberal humanists.

Now you're getting it!

[Redcloak]

Perhaps we could hire all of those illegal aliens to get fat for us... You know: Putting on the weight that Americans refuse to put on.

[383rr]

I am not one bit surprised. They'll be sin-taxing "junk" food soon enough, the temptation for the gov. to get some more easy revenue( and to replace some of the lost tobacco money) will prove too great.

[SheLion]

Thanks for the ping. I just shake my head, elk!

[GSlob]

How much? Plastic surgeons charge about $1000 a pound.

[elkfersupper]

I just shake my head

You're welcome. Me too.

I'm shaking the ammo boxes.

[Finalapproach29er]

Before do-gooders tried telling us how to live, America used to be a free country.