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Ultimately this is going to be a problem not for the airlines to address, but for the gov't. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic; that's not the airlines' fault. In this day & age of moving towards socialized health care, eventually there is going to be a 'War on Obesity' similar to the 'War on Tobacco' that we've had since around the time of the Clinton admin. I don't think it's even a question of 'should.' It's going to be an inexorable process. The CDC estimates that as much as 75% of health care costs are due to behavior. With gov't now paying so much of the bill, gov't is going to inevitably seek ways to control behavior.
Ultimately this is going to be a problem not for the airlines to address, but for the gov't. We are in the midst of an obesity epidemic; that's not the airlines' fault. In this day & age of moving towards socialized health care, eventually there is going to be a 'War on Obesity' similar to the 'War on Tobacco' that we've had since around the time of the Clinton admin. I don't think it's even a question of 'should.' It's going to be an inexorable process. The CDC estimates that as much as 75% of health care costs are due to behavior. With gov't now paying so much of the bill, gov't is going to inevitably seek ways to control behavior.
That is why I rarely travel in America. No other country has such a high percentage of obese people and terribly behaving kids.
Let's not turn this into a dumping on fat people post because it's not polite or necessary and you have no idea what issues someone else has. That said we all pay good money to fly and should fly in comfort. This isn't a lets pick on fat people post, this is an airlines need to enforce weight and size requirements on people more strictly like they do on carry on so that passengers who fit in their seat don't have to give up half their seat to the passenger next to them who doesn't.
Being a quite large person myself I always make sure I wear something nice smelling or have no smell. I try to fly first class much as possible. Though I have been known to buy the person who sits next to me a drink or meal of their choosing. Its all about being friendly to them because I know im making them uncomfortable.
Trust me I know fat people get labeled as smelly and gross and I always try to make sure I don't stink. I even changed my shirt once in the bathroom because I could smell that it wasn't that fresh for some strange reason.
Skinny people can be just as bad so its not limited to the people of size.
Last edited by wintersbone; 03-04-2015 at 01:31 PM..
You are aware that the ACA or Obamacare is NOT socialized medicine, right? It's a funded insurance marketplace.
I agree that ACA is not socialized medicine. The definition of socialism is government ownership of the means of production, which in this case would mean gov't owned and operated hospitals and clinics, and doctors and nurses getting a paycheck from the federal gov't same as Amtrak or USPS employees. We don't have that yet. But we are certainly going in that direction.
Pres. Obama is on record as favoring single-payer (socialized) health care, but he settled for ACA as the closest policy that was politically viable.
There is a case to be made that the many problems of the ACA, from the web site rollout to 'if you like your plan, you can keep your plan' were by design. The idea goes that Obamacare was designed to fail, in order to usher in single payer. I think Pres. Obama is a brilliant guy. His Harvard law prof Laurence Tribe said that Obama was one of his top two brightest students ever. I find it hard to believe that he would deliberately enact ACA with its obvious flaws, unless it was a pawn in a larger chess game.
Well, he had to get up for you to get into your window seat. At that point the arm rest goes down (at least for me) and if he couldn't fit in the seat with it down then the next step would be call ring the FA call button and explain that the chap doesn't fit in his seat. I have done exactly this before, and in front of the passenger of size. No shaming, just a statement of facts. They were offloaded.
You told the flight attendant the person was too fat for you to put your armrest down and the person was bumped to a later flight?
I once sat next to a fairly large guy that was so over his seat that he was almost on half my lap. My biggest issue is smelly people. Seems I always got stuck to someone that is musky or has bad gas.
While I am not a small guy, I fit into the seats well and my hips do not spill into the other seat. What does invade other seats are my shoulders. I am broad, I am former Army and power lift. I do prefer isle as I try to think of my fellow passengers nor do I recline. I am willing to take the random ding to my knee or shoulder form the FA pushing carts, if it means I am not shoving my shoulder into a fellow passenger.
I started upgrading to first class or economy comfort due to my size. I fit in the width part of the seat just fine except my shoulders but as I am 6'6" tall I have a problem with my legs. I kind of like first class because you have plenty of overhead space, the seats are very comfortable and you get better service. It's nice to be up front sipping on a "complimentary" (aka paid for in the ticket price) double Woodford Reserve and enjoying the ride.
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?... who needs a tax credit when paying $2000/ month HC on a $800/ month income?
Plenty of options available.
