Obesity.

[JonB]

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6494117.stm

Obesity is a problem all around the world right now.

Should obese people be put in the same bracket as smokers re: taxes?

I'm fully aware that the article is in Australia, but I suspect measures like that will be found in the UK, if they haven't already.

Everyday there is something on the news regarding obesity and some of the stories are truly shocking. This morning there was a story of a 34stone 19 year old woman who had to had 2/3's of her stomach removed to stop eating so much and 3 months later the doctor told her she was still eating too much.

Personally for myself, I was already hating my figure, even though I was only in the governments "overweight" bracket and went out to do something about it. There are a lot of dieticians saying that obese people need support to loose weight, however this support puts strain on the NHS and a related services. In my opinion morbidly obese people are going to start becoming a huge burden on society and I believe it is unfair to just tarnish smokers with the brush that they are killing themselves, when these obese people are doing the same, at least after a cigarette smokers are still productive, what can you do when you are permanently glued to a chair?

I have personal experience in seeing particular overweight women claiming disability benefit, just because they are overweight and claiming they cannot work.

Without wanting to start another racial thread, aren't obese people more of a strain on society than immigrants?

Discuss.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[pwntifex]

I have never been that healthy. Last year I got to a point where I thought "if I don't do something about this, I'm going to go past the point of no return."

So I signed up the gym, started eating healthily, planning excercise and whatnot. And hey, whaddya know, it works.

It's really not that difficult. I'm always skeptical when I hear people going on about stomach staples and all that stuff. How is that healthy? If you want to lose weight, you have to totally change your life. You can't just go for the quick fix, can ya?

That isn't to say you need an eating disorder, or anything. I still love food, just don't eat any crap.

I'm not sure if we should tax the obese, though. The last thing you should do is make food a sort of hated thing, the sort of thing that issues centre around. There are too many people already who have a real problem with food, it's just sad.

Encourage kids to get out more?
P.E. is a bit of a farce. Anybody who didn't like rugby was fucked, because that's all we ever did. Maybe let kids choose what they want to do.

I think family-orientation has a role there, too. Not many obese kids in France when I was growing up there. Maybe kids need to be encouraged to appreciate food, and experiment with it from an early age. I think most people end up becoming obese because they boredom eat, or they just have no idea what's in their meals.
____________________
the warped one: This is a follow up from the thread 'my willy hurts'

[JonB]

Like everything that is bad, it is always hard to find a middle ground to satisfy both parties. I'm not thinking of a blanket tax on food here, i'm thinking of some sort of method to encourage larger people to lose weight.

I don't know, foot scales next to tills at supermarkets? Certain weight means a 10% increase in final bill, linked to the tills?
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[veeeffarr]

[JonB]

[Dom]

Gotta say I'd be all for taxing the obese for exactly the same reasons I'm all for taxing smokers. The way things are going most of the people in hospitals are going to be there because they're overweight. Why should those of us who don't stuff our faces with crap all day long have to pay for their reinforced beds?
____________________
Photos and that

[Mister James]

Sure thing.

Lets start penalising bikers with horrific taxes too - Jeebus only knows how much they cost us in A and E!

How about people who willfully eat takeaway, or chocolate, or drink beer?


____________________
>Soultrader Mister James, I bet you are a copper
>Bazza Wow. Eyes like a shithouse rat, you...

[JonB]

Not a big enough recognised problem Mister James! I think the NHS most probably spend more money on fat people than motorcyclists.

Beer is already taxed.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[veeeffarr]

Lets make overweight people feel more victimised and unwelcome than we already do! Sounds like a great plan mate...

[veeeffarr]

[JonB]

[Mister James]

[JonB]

[veeeffarr]

[JonB]

[Dom]

[veeeffarr]

I'm not obese in any way shape or form, but I'll eat what the fuck I want and do what the fuck I want...

Again, obese people are entitled to hospital treatment just like any other person.

This has more to do with the underlying issue - Whether people should be treated for self inflicted injuries.

Bikers fall under that bracket
Obese people (VAGUELY) fall under that bracket (According to your beliefs)
Smokers

So basically unless the person is totally innocent and was harmed by something beyond his/her control they should not be treated or taxed out of the cause of their admission to hospital?

[veeeffarr]

[Mister James]

[veeeffarr]

[innominate]

Yeah TAX em,

Tax them pavement tax, its their massive girth that causes paving slabs to crack. People then find these cracks, trip up over them then sue the council. Which via taxation is sueing us.

Tax the fatties, or just make em walk on mud/grass.

Problem solved.
____________________
I, as a responsible adult human being, will never concede the power to anyone to regulate my choice of what I put into my body, or where I go with my mind. From the skin inwards is my jurisdiction, is it not? I choose what may or may not cross that border. Here I am the customs agent. I am the coast-guard. I am the sole legal and spiritual government of this territory, and only the laws I choose to enact within myself are applicable.

[JonB]

Yes but bikers already pay above VAT to ride a motorbike, i.e Vehicle Excise Duty and added tax on petrol.

At the moment obese people are paying the same flat rate 17.5% on luxury foods like everybody else.

Perhaps they could be subsidised to buy more fruit and veg. Living in poverty is worse as food standards go down as prices go down, however, a higher tax on luxury foods would discourage obese people from indulging in such high fat foods.

We all confess to eating the odd takeaway, binge eating, but as a counteract many people have much more active lifestyles. This is not impossible for all people to do. If it takes a tax to encourage people to lose weight then so be it.
____________________
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[veeeffarr]

[Dom]

[craigie b]

Its an interesting one this and its very reasonalbe to say that if your going to tax smokers for damaging their health then overwieght people should fall in the same category. You hoon the pizza's down your neck, nobody forces you and unlike smokers, you are not adicted to a drug so it boils down to simple greed, of course under the self imposed label of other psychological problems that cause you to eat.

I would say its a complex issue as well. I say that food isn't a drug but manufactuers do make aditives which make food taste better do have a pyshcological impact on the brain. However, the aditives aren't that frigging powerful that you'd want to eat the stuff until you were ready to burst. Thats your own impulses.

I think obese people tend to act victimised, in the respect they can't stop themselves. But ultimately they get into the state where they are morbidly obese, ignore their bodies signals to stop and keep going regardless.

The basic fact is, if you want to loose weight you need to eat less and exercise more. This requires some self discipline and learning to enjoy activities other than sitting on your arse all day. Its not rocket science and it doesn't need government intervention, however if obese people choose to act as if these two simple things are outside of their sphere of influence then the government will get involved and will treat them as if they are in fact victims.....but in my eyes they are not victims but willing participants.

Its ridiculous that obese people will endure the pain of stomach stapling, liposuction etc which will lead to a life time of pain rather than choose the natural, healthy route of eating less and enduring a little pain during exercise. To me, its a show of just how lazy these people are, when you'd rather have invasive surgery rather than eat sensibly and go for a walk/cycle a few times a week.