A lifetime of poor diet and inactivity, and YOU are paying for it

[Razorguns]

i thought medicare was for emergency treatments only?

Why the FUCK would someone want private medical insurance when medicare is paying for practically everyone and everyTHING out here in LA. And now "weight loss treatments"?? You gotta be shittin' me. I don't even get that on my Blue Cross!

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

It's true, alot of people get mentally addicted to food. As loud as Matt squacks, we do need to deal with the fat problem in this country.

What problem? it is a problem for individuals, and the consequence should belong to those individuals as well.

That's how you deal with a problem, not by intervening.

Squack lol

Or at least make a law against fat chicks wearing tight clothes.

Now that, I could go for!

 

[biteme]

Shhhhsh. And people call me lazy. I just have different priorities. I don't care about trying to get rich, I just want to look like an adonis until the day I die. OK, I'd like to have the money too.

 

[casualbb]

What problem? it is a problem for individuals, and the consequence should belong to those individuals as well.

That's how you deal with a problem, not by intervening.

Squack lol


Now that, I could go for!

Here's the problem... people have been making the "personal responsibility" case for quite some time now. First of all, it doesn't work. We're been advocating personal responsibility for decades and people just keep getting fatter and fatter. There are more fat people now than 2 year ago. Is everyone in 2004 magically less responsible? Not likely.

The problem arises from the prevalence of pure shit foods in our markets and our advertising. And the sad thing is, the government is so bound to special interest groups in the food industry, that they can't even issue a statement that says "eat less."

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

Here's the problem... people have been making the "personal responsibility" case for quite some time now. First of all, it doesn't work. We're been advocating personal responsibility for decades and people just keep getting fatter and fatter.

Well, I like it when people who disagree with me open up their disagreement with a self-contradiction.

If people cannot be responsible for themselves, then they cannot be responsible for others. Self-explanatory. Discussion over.

But allowing the idiocy of your post to stand on its own wouldn't be any fun. And I want to have some fun, dammit.

You say We're been advocating personal responsibility for decades and people just keep getting fatter and fatter.

With the ever-rising amount of litigation, how are we advocating personal responsibility? Where was the advocacy for it whe McDonald's had to pay a woman who spilled coffee on herself?

Where was the personal responsibility when the tobacco industry had to pay out billions because people smoked even though the warnings had been on the packs of cigarettes since 1970?

And of course, recent litigation on fast food issues, which was, heroically, dismissed, but will re-appear.

I'd say we've been advocating anything but personal responsibility.

There are more fat people now than 2 year ago. Is everyone in 2004 magically less responsible? Not likely.

Here is the "magic" question: WHO CARES? Obesity is an individual's problem. It ONLY becomes someone else's problem when someone else has to pay for the costs of treating the co-morbidities associated with disease.

In short, obesity is ONLY a problem when we abandon personal responsibility. Since, according to you, we need to abandon personal responsibility, using your thought process, the problem will only get worse.

If you are obese, it is not MY problem until I have to pay for your stupid fat ass.

The problem arises from the prevalence of pure shit foods in our markets and our advertising.

Do advertisiers put a gun to your head? last I looked, ingredients are required to be on the side of every food item in the supermarket. Fast food places have the contents of their menu items posted in readily visible areas.

And the sad thing is, the government is so bound to special interest groups in the food industry, that they can't even issue a statement that says "eat less."

Why should the government tell you how to eat? Do we need a bureaucrat to tell us how to take care of our bodies? What if we WANT to be fat?

 

[jerseyart]

Medicare needs to be reworked, and many of the add ons and rampant abuses are mind boggling.

But the suggestion that as a nation we should no longer provide medical care to the most needy is neither practical or humane. People aren't animals that can be ignored, and the program provides necessary services to many who would otherwise have to do without any care whatsoever

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

Medicare needs to be reworked, and many of the add ons and rampant abuses are mind boggling.

But the suggestion that as a nation we should no longer provide medical care to the most needy is neither practical or humane. People aren't animals that can be ignored, and the program provides necessary services to many who would otherwise have to do without any care whatsoever

If you stop helping a person, they might just learn to take care of themselves. if you think this is too absolute, well, I understand that.

But from a market standpoint, it is the presence of the government along with private industry as the third party payors that have made health care so expensive.

Getting the government out is the way to let the market fix prices.

 

[jerseyart]

If you stop helping a person, they might just learn to take care of themselves. if you think this is too absolute, well, I understand that.

But from a market standpoint, it is the presence of the government along with private industry as the third party payors that have made health care so expensive.

Getting the government out is the way to let the market fix prices.

Matt,

As a libertarian, and fiscal conservative, I sympathize with a great deal of your angst and reasoning.

But as you yourself alluded to, your position is somewhat rigid and absolute, never a good place upon which to build a firm foundation with respect to any policies involving human beings.

Do I think medicare needs to be downsized,reworked, and reprioratized? Most certainly.

However, as a person, and as a society, I would hope to aspire to greater heights than the equivelant of "F' them if they can't take care of themselves."

I have no idea what your background is, but it strikes me somewhat as reflecting someone who was genetically fortunate enough to be born to parents able to care for him without trouble. Rarely do you witness such sentiments coming from a self made individual. There is something to be said for experience and walking in the other mans shoes.

 

[juiceddreadlocks]

MTS. i posted a much more descriptive thread about this around 6 months ago. nonetheless i totally agree. most of my patients are morbidly obese.

 

[biteme]

MTS. i posted a much more descriptive thread about this around 6 months ago. nonetheless i totally agree. most of my patients are morbidly obese.

A nice way of saying fat asses.