According to this story from the Associated Press, “A “fat tax” on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published” by Oxford University researchers.
Know the difference between liberty and tyranny?
Liberty is having the freedom to make our own choices.
Tyranny is having the government make our choices for us.
And that’s exactly what these nanny-staters are proposing in yet another effort to have government save us from ourselves. Well, you know what? I don’t want to be saved. Indeed, I don’t think there’s a role for government to play in the obesity discussion. If I want to eat unhealthy food and die young, that’s my decision and, more importantly, it’s my responsibility.
Cam: Amen to that. When I got fat, it wasn’t the government’s fault. It was my own. And it wasn’t the government that’s making me lose weight, it’s me (and my wife, but whatever).
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July 12, 2007 - 9:44 am
Trick is, the government is paying your doctor to treat you for being sick as part of your choice to eat unhealthy food. Because others are paying for it, they have a stake in your eating habits.
That’s reason government paid health care is a bad idea for personal liberty.
Of course, in private insurance the entire risk pool is paying for your doctor collectively and has a stake. In theory, your premiums/copays should go up if you smoke or get overweight. Or get old. Or have kids.
Related thought: How many kids would there be if parents had to pay for all medical expenses and education expenses themselves, now that very effective contraceptives are in play? Should government be subsidizing the birth rate.
Caveat: I’m still drinking my first coffee of the day. The above might well be crap. Feel free to delete.
July 12, 2007 - 9:45 am
The above assumed “You” were in the UK, since it was in the context of Oxford.
July 12, 2007 - 9:45 am
So the score so far for these people is, you can’t smoke in bars, you can’t drive fast cars and now you cant enjoy a pizza without someone trying to stop you? When did the continent of Atilla the Hun, Julius Caesar and Napoleon become the “land of the pussies”?
Isn’t this the place that used to drink absinthe by the bucketful?
Is Europe now the “Grey” continent?, where all colors are washed out, there are no sharp edges to fall and hurt yourself and every electrical outlet is protected from accidental use? What next? are all the pools going to be mandated to be no deeper than 3 feet, just in case someone were to accidentally fall in and, oh I dont know go swimming? The whole place is like Mrs. Beasleys pre-school, next you will hear madated rest periods where everyone will be required to nap in the afternoon for a little “quiet time”.
Will they all soon be reduced to wearing identitical mao suits, eating washed out vegan food drinking recycled grey water and using composting toilets?
Did the whole place turn into IKEA?
What the hell is the sense of living a teensy bit longer if while you are alive youre so damned afraid of every little thing that you just cower in the corner of the house in fear?
Oh dont touch that cafe latte, theres a .00002 chance that you will scald your lip which will lead to mouth cancer. Better to drink the Ensure fortified milk instead. Bettter still lets mandate it so no one can even make a caffe latte, lest you be tempted.
Heres a little fact for the boys in Brussels:
Despite your best efforts, everyone is without a doubt - going to die.
And here’s the real kick in the crotch, 95% of the factors that lead to your death ( short of being run over by a Fiat Cinquecento
at the roundabout) are determined by your genes. Theres not a damn thing you can do about it.
Think about it, so there you are on your deathbed, contemplating your life as you slip away and you say…
“I lead a good life and did all the right things and my car has really low miles on it BUT I NEVER HAD ANY FUN,,aaauugghhhhhh….”
I feel sorry for these poor people. The havent got the good sense to hold their governemnt in total contempt like we do.
July 12, 2007 - 10:26 am
Thanks for the great comments.
Hal, I think you raise an interesting point about the risk pool. In the discussion below about Jim’s 9 for 90, folks are raising the idea of consumer-pays (rather than insurance pays) health care.
More and more, we’re seeing private businesses like Wal-Mart opening clinics that offer low-cost, routine health care services. To me, this is a step in the right direction.
Increasingly, I think there’s consensus around the idea that the employer-provided health care system is broken. The question is, how are we going to fix it. For my own part, I believe strongly that whatever the solution, it needs to take market forces — which means the choices and decisions of consumers / patients strongly into account. The current system doesn’t do that very well.
July 12, 2007 - 10:31 am
“95% of the factors that lead to your death…are determined by your genes.”
As you noted, everyone does die, so I assume you mean ill health and early death. In that case, you are mistaken. Smokers and very obese out of shape people do die earlier and do have more nasty health problems, on average, than folks who don’t smoke and keep in shape. Now, should people who choose to enjoy smoking and that extra slice of pizza be hounded by the state?
No…unless the state is paying their medical bills, as it does in Europe. Some sort of premium system should be in place to remove the moral hazard generated by having someone else pay for the lifestyle choices.
July 12, 2007 - 10:51 am
so we can quickly conclude that the state that determines your insurance eligibility controls all of your right by default.
Sure, health care is free, you just have to surrender all of your basic human rights to get it.
July 12, 2007 - 11:49 am
“so we can quickly conclude that the state that determines your insurance eligibility controls all of your right by default.”
Not all your rights, but the ones that are not otherwise protected (e.g., right to bear arms) or are unrelated to health costs. You are asking the state to pay for you, after all. The results of state control of health care is infantilization of the populace. America needs to get this from the experience of Europe, before it is too late.
OK, I am probably being extreme and jerky, but it does bug me. Peace.