Why America Has to Be Fat (Its good for the economy)

[zippy890]

Sunday, January 22, 2006 WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/21/AR2006012100180.html

A Side Effect of Economic Expansion Shows Up in Front

I am fat. Sixty pounds too hefty, in my doctor's opinion. Probably 80 pounds, in my fiancee's view.

Being fat makes me a lot of things -- a top contender for type II diabetes, for instance, or a heart attack, or stroke, maybe even a replacement knee or hip. My girth also puts me in familiar company, with about two-thirds of the U.S. population now considered overweight

But in many ways, my being fat also makes me pretty good for the economy.

You've read the headlines: America's problem with bulging waistlines has reached pandemic proportions, according to federal health officials, who warn that obesity is becoming society's No. 1 killer. But as doctors wrestle with the problem, economists have been pondering which corporations and industries benefit, and the role that changes in the overall economy have played in making us fat to begin with.

....

"The obesity problem is really a side effect of things that are good for the economy," said Tomas J. Philipson, an economics professor who studies obesity at the University of Chicago, a city recently named the fattest in America. "But we would rather take improvements in technology and agriculture than go back to the way we lived in the 1950s when everyone was thin. Nobody wants to sweat at work for 10 hours a day and be poor. Yes, you're obese, but you have a life that is much more comfortable.

...

"Put simply, there is a lot of money being made, and to be made, in feeding both oversized stomachs and feeding those enterprises selling fixes for oversized stomachs," Weis wrote in 2005 in the Academy of Health Care Management Journal. "And both industries -- those selling junk food and those selling fat cures -- depend for their future on a prevalence of obesity.

...

~snip~

Hmmmm, food for thought


:beer: :9 :popcorn:

[wake.up.america]

1. Very well expressed. Europeans are not far behind. In fact, the ...

difference is rather slim.

Staying well is very unhealthy for the economy.

Check out the web site for which I occasionally write, listed below. (German only)

[0007]

2. I understand it is becoming a global problem.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. So is preemptive war, obscene CEO salaries, etc

At some point, we have to figure out how to make the path of least resistance (economically) be in a sensible direction.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Deleted

[HockeyMom]

5. American Clothes Sizes

Ok, for all of you "older" people here. Have you noticed that clothes sizes are getting BIGGER??? I am in my late 50s and weigh approximately 5 lbs. more (granted things have shifted a bit) than I did in my 20s. Back then I wore a size 7. For the past several years I have I have worn a size 3. About 10 years ago I was a size 5. I just went shopping for all new jeans yesterday. Trying on the jeans I found that the sizes 3's were big on me. I bought SIZE ONE. I went home and weighed myself. Nope, I am still the same weight. I certainly haven't LOST 20 lbs. in the last 30 years. At the rate these manufacturers are going I will be shopping in the TODDLER department when I start collecting Social Security, IF that is still around.

Can you see the psychology behind this? The few times I have bought European clothing I found I still wear the bigger equivalent size.

[RazzleCat]

6. Exactly, I too am "shrinking"

I am 47 years old, in high school I wore a 6-8. I weigh more now and wear a 2-4. I know I am not getting smaller. I too live in fear that in my 60's I will be shopping in the children's department.

[FloridaPat]

7. How about your body measurements - have they changed at all?

Even though you stay the same weight, your measurements can change. I do know a few decades ago they did change the sizes. Those who wore a 12 ended up wearing a 10. Also, most of our clothes come from Asia how, where people are much smaller. And lastly, it also depends on the cutting machine. The clothes are cut by having a large number of pices on top of each other and a die does the cutting. The die might be for a size 10, but not all the pices will come out a perfect size 10.

[Deja Q]

8. Not just oversized stomachs; if our society didn't sell video games

and encouraged participation, while keeping the egocentric bullies in check, we'd all be thinner and have fewer health problems.

Good food for thought regaridng who benefits from our demise.

I think I'm going to go for a long jog today.

[depakid]

9. LOL- I'm going to bring this article to class

It'll be another day of ridicule for the apologists at Pravda.

The amusing thing is that junk food propaganda ALWAYS uses the word "tasty" Always. It's one of their buzzwords. That's how you can tell when someone's doing a bit of whoring. Look for it the next time you see a long junk food/obesity thread.