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I have no problem with a doctor refusing to accept a patient. It's a private practice and they are not required to accept all patients...they aren't ER drs, who have no choice. They are running a business and all private businesses have a right to refuse service.
Nor do I have issue with obese ppl paying for two seats on airplane. I travel a lot and I dont' want someone's fat rolls ( and the smells that go along with it) hanging on me. I also think it's only fair that they pay higher medical insurance premiums and life insurance premiums as well.
There may be a small percent of obese ppl that are obese for medical reasons, but the majority of obese ppl choose to be obese.
Location: DFW Metroplex. Not TX-born but never leaving.
301 posts, read 571,133 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Ancient
Im guessing that many of you didnt even both to read the article in the link I posted. You just saw "Fat Tax" and though YOU were being taxed so you disagree. I think its a fantastic idea and one that is NOT punishing the poor as someone alluded to.
The tax is on foods that contain more than 2.3% saturated fat which we all know leads to heart disease and obesity. They previously applied a 25% tax on ice cream, chocolate and sweets which I think is a fantastic idea.
They must be doing something right because they have less than 10% obesity in their country, while we here are at like 35%.
I'm betting at least part of their lower obesity rate has to do with their much lower dependence on cars.
I have no problem with a doctor refusing to accept a patient. It's a private practice and they are not required to accept all patients...they aren't ER drs, who have no choice. They are running a business and all private businesses have a right to refuse service.
Nor do I have issue with obese ppl paying for two seats on airplane. I travel a lot and I dont' want someone's fat rolls ( and the smells that go along with it) hanging on me. I also think it's only fair that they pay higher medical insurance premiums and life insurance premiums as well.
There may be a small percent of obese ppl that are obese for medical reasons, but the majority of obese ppl choose to be obese.
This.
As far as the tax. What an asinine concept. I live in a country of freedoms. If I want to eat unhealthy foods then let me. Also let me accept the consequences of my choices.
As far as the tax. What an asinine concept. I live in a country of freedoms. If I want to eat unhealthy foods then let me. Also let me accept the consequences of my choices.
Rather naive. There are social consequences to individual behavior.
What about the fat people who DON'T mismanage their food intake? (yes, they do exist)
I suppose that depends on what you consider mismanaging. I shall assume that you reckon that a fat person who has a slice of birthday cake once or twice a year is mismanaging. I mean, that is the general concensus, yes? Surely everyone knows that one slice of birthday cake eaten by a fat person is that persons admission of just complete and utter gluttony, indicative that they don't care for themselves or anyone else for that matter and are primarily trying to eat themselves to death, you know, having thrown in the towel.
Btw, fat people already "pay" more for things anyway. They already pay way more for clothing that is often poorly constructed, made with inferior textiles, that typically come in three colours (black, navy and brown) or in a variety of florals, screen printed butterflies and kittens, festooned with ribbons, bows, sequins, rhinestones, gigantic fake jewels, or that uber fantastic crinkle $h!t and is hopelessly unstylish, unflattering, and unattractive.
They already pay more for health care premiums in many states IF they can even get health care coverage at all. And then they don't even get to use it, because more and more doctors in those states (yeah Florida, Im looking at you) are going against their hypocratic Oath and refusing to treat them, based solely on weight/size bigotry. I know this because my cousins wife is a sonographer (or whatever they're called these days) for an OBGYN, in FL, who will not take new patients with a BMI of 29 or more because she's (quote) "not treating these fat *******; if they want treatment they can make an appointment with a large animal vet".
Then of course there is the other kind of paying fat people do in every day life.......ridicule and taunting, harassment, being judged, being ignored or given more attention than is really called for. They pay by being labeled, pigeon holed, and stereotyped. They pay by being bombarded with a thousand negative and/or contradictory messages in dozens of ways from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed.
Yeah, they deserve all this and more for being so GD fat, right? How about we make them pay more out of pocket for EVERYTHING? Yeah, that's a great idea! Let's not even consider putting more tax on other unnecessary items like cigarettes, booze, or porn....unless of course the consumers of such are FAT. Everyone knows that cigarettes, booze and porn are only unhealthy when FAT people make use of it. Just as everyone knows that non-fat people can do no wrong. A fat person buying regular salad dressing to go with their shopping basket of salad veggies is just throwing caution to the wind with their health, the disgusting wastes of space that they are, but a non-fat person buying junk food, cigarettes, and booze? Well that is just a good ol' fashioned splurge, as American as baseball, Mom, and apple pie. Oh Lord, don't say apple pie......the fatties will hear you and stampede!!!!!!
*****hat.
You assume incorrectly what I think. No one becomes obese from a piece of cake on special occasions. They become obese based on what they do every day. Only a tiny percentage of obese people have a physiological problem. The vast majority are that way because of lifestyle choices they made.
No doubt obese people do pay a price for their choices - some of which you listed. Many of these consequences are OK with me. If a fat person wants to ride a roller coaster they can't fit in - then lose the weight. I am against job discrimination unless the person's size/weight has a direct negative impact on the job requirements.
As for clothes....I don't know what to say about that. I'm not young, so I remember the days of large women wearing what looked like tents. I see more "large is beautiful" stuff sold and promoted today than ever. 10-20 years ago there was no such thing as a large lingerie catalog. But they exist now. I assume that is because someone concluded there is a market demand for it. Lack of stylish clothing though is not due to some conspiracy against heavy people.
Im guessing that many of you didnt even both to read the article in the link I posted. You just saw "Fat Tax" and though YOU were being taxed so you disagree. I think its a fantastic idea and one that is NOT punishing the poor as someone alluded to.
The tax is on foods that contain more than 2.3% saturated fat which we all know leads to heart disease and obesity. They previously applied a 25% tax on ice cream, chocolate and sweets which I think is a fantastic idea.
They must be doing something right because they have less than 10% obesity in their country, while we here are at like 35%.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81
I don't know that. Nobody knows that.
That is the main problem I have with such a tax; I don't think our doctors completely understand what is and isn't healthy.
It wasn't long ago that they were telling us that eating fat in general was bad for us. Now that has been revised to avoid trans fats and saturated fats. Trans fats have been removed from a lot of foods in the past few years, but we haven't seen obesity numbers fall at all.
Maybe what is really hurting us is the modified and processed nature of the foods we eat and not their fat content. Could that be it? In which case, taxing something like butter or cream, even though they are high in fat, would not be doing anyone any favors.
I just finished reading Wheat Belly, and I honestly think that Dr. Davis is on the right track, but he is in a very small minority of the medical profession. You can read about going wheat free on his blog, Wheat Belly | Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight.
I might support a fat tax if it targeted processed foods only and left things like dairy alone. I shop the perimeter of the grocery store; that's where many dietitians will tell you the healthiest foods are and I don't think any of those should be taxed. If they want to tax Cherrios, wheat thins, pretzels, potato chips, and other processed foods, then whatever. But, I don't think the people writing our tax codes know enough about what is and isn't truly healthy at this point to be making decisions for this type of a tax.
Seems like weight gain has pretty well tracked with increased per capita sugar consumption over the past few decades.
Hmmm....is your post the result of some research? Or are you just picking one indicator?
I think we might be able to correlate lots of things over the last few decades to the fattening of America.
- reduction in smoking
- drop in crime
- in spite of driving more, people die less in cars
- growth of the federal deficit
- increase in college tuition costs
- the development of the internet
- the popularity of the Food Network
- global warming
- increased use of statins to treat high cholesterol
What else? I think the fattening of America is a complicated issue and sugar consumption is just one of the possible factors.
Hmmm....is your post the result of some research? Or are you just picking one indicator?
I think we might be able to correlate lots of things over the last few decades to the fattening of America.
- reduction in smoking
- drop in crime
- in spite of driving more, people die less in cars
- growth of the federal deficit
- increase in college tuition costs
- the development of the internet
- the popularity of the Food Network
- global warming
- increased use of statins to treat high cholesterol
What else? I think the fattening of America is a complicated issue and sugar consumption is just one of the possible factors.
Increase in fast food saturation in the suburbs.
Increase in published "diets".
Increase in media attention of the evils of sugar and the sugar substitutes companies' interest in exploiting that attention via mass-marketing and advertising
Increase in overall stress levels of Americans due to unemployment, the housing crunch, and general financial difficulties, and "comfort food" companies using this trend to saturate the market with their products.
Increase in use of anti-depression medications (that didn't exist 10, 20, 30 years ago) which can contribute to weight gain.
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