The Government is Working On Ways to INDUCE People to Be Healthier

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   AnnCeeposted 13 years ago

   Let's see now, hmmm . . . .   The government is working on ways to induce people to be healthier.  Okay. 
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   More generally, however, designing government policies that are effective at inducing people to be healthier is challenging.  Even successful efforts might take many years to bear fruit and could involve significant costs.
   
   One notable success story in improving health is the large reduction in smoking that has occurred in the United States over the past several decades.  The fraction of adults who smoke today is roughly half of what it was in 1965.  But public policies that discouraged smoking took decades to develop, implement, and reach fruition.  Obesity, which is perhaps the most pressing public health problem facing the country, is probably even more difficult to address.  Unlike smoking, which involves a unique substance that is no healthy in any quantity, obesity is the end result of several interacting factors that are not all intrinsically unhealthy.  One of those factors is obviously diet, which can be hard to regulate because many foods are safe to eat in moderation.  Another key factor is lack of exercise, a bad habit that --like a poor diet--can be difficult for individuals to change and is particularly difficult for policymakers to influence.  Approaches for losing weight reflect those difficulties.  A variety of interventions appear to succeed in the short run, but relatively few participants are able to maintain their weight loss for a long period of time.  Keeping to a lower weight may require longer-lasting and potentially more expensive, approaches.
   
   http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q … gl=us&
   
   
   
   Induced to lose weight.  Hmmm . . .  Yeah, that's been done before.  A little hard work in the fresh air, a little bread and water, a svelte new population.

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      alternate poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I can agree your main point, I object to be told or induced to do what others want, and I do not think it is government's business to interfere in my personal life choices and habits.  I would go so far as to object to seat belt laws that require me to use them on my own in my own car with only me can get hurt if I don't.
      
      I do not think that the use of that picture, to make such a trivial  point, is justifiable - and would ask you to remove it if you can.

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         AnnCeeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Happy to remove picture, but the point is hardly trivial.

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            alternate poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            In relation I would say that it is.  Government interference in the lives of fat people and smokers is hardly in the same ballpark.

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   Jim Hunterposted 13 years ago

   You may want to watch Penn and Tellers show "Bullshit" on this very subject.
   
   You will come away feeling a little apprehensive about government involvement in the way we CHOOSE to live our lives.

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3. 67

   AnnCeeposted 13 years ago

   Government officials contemplating controlling the behavior of American citizens is deeply disturbing to me.  Remember Dingell's little slip?
   
   "It takes a long time to control people."
   
   http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/dennis- … eople.html
   
   
   One thing leads to another. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Fat people, old people, disabled people?  When everyone is in the pool together the ones who cost the most are a drag on everyone.  It's only sensible. . . For the good of the group. . .
   
   
   
   http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php … ath-panelq

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