Reply to I don't agree with Bloomberg, but there just shouldn't be food made with more than 1,000 calories

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Reply to "I don't agree with Bloomberg, but there just shouldn't be food made with more than 1,000 calories"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Okay, forget about Bloomberg.

How, if at all, would you use public policy to try to stem the obesity epidemic in the United States?  If you think we should do nothing, what would you propose to do to handle the health care costs for the obese, which are SIX TIMES the health care costs of the non-obese?  Given that the obese are predominantly low income, is it even possible to think that they should pay for their higher health costs?  Should parents be allowed to let their children become obese?

In short, what solutions would you have, or why would you propose nothing (public policy wise) should be done?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/04/30/obesity-now-costs-americans-more-in-healthcare-costs-than-smoking/[/quote]

I would vastly, vastly improve the food served at public schools. This would be particularly helpful for lower income students as they consume much more of their calories at scchool than higher income students. After that, I'd make a huge push to build more parks (particularly in low income neighborhoods) and give subsidies for gym memberhsips (a tax write-off perhaps). [/quote]

Building more parks is a nice idea, but land is very expensive. You have to find it (not easy) and then develop it as a park instead of income-producing housing in an area where (traditionally) there are more people than places to put them. One reason there are usually more "project" housing and very few parks. Sad, but true. [/quote]

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