The problem with capitalism?
Apparently, it's that prices are too low and there are too many options from which to choose. And also that prices are too low. I'll start with the prices being too low:
Radley Balko does an admirable job taking on the uber-adults in the Congressional Hunger Fellowship who are apparently studying overeating. Yeah, I almost choked on that, too. Radley makes the point that the problem isn't lack of affordable nutrition (you can get all of your fruits and veggies on less than $1/day), or overeating per se, but rather lack of exercise. He goes further and makes the point that even if you concede that the complaint about Mickey D's and their competitors is true (that is, you accept the foolish claim that they are selling food too cheaply), then what are we supposed to do about it? Enforce minimum food expense laws? Force people to eat less by coercive methods? Heck, you can't even piss upwind of a Quran these days without somebody screaming torture, so how in the world is the Bush Administration going to pry a Big Mac out of Michael Moore's hands? Do you want the Bush Administration having that kind of power? Do you want any administration having that kind of power?
To answer Radley's question regarding when we started worrying about food being too cheap, the answer lies partly in when the public health officials ran out of public health problems. Fortunately, our Third Party Payer "system" solved that by introducing new health problems, specifically that consumers, not having to face the true costs of their choices, chose low-out-of-pocket visits to the doctor and Lipitor instead of healthy lifestyles. Once politicians began to realize that Medicare was robbing them of their God-given right to spend money on million dollar bus stops and other such plans, they notified the taxpayers that smokers and fatties were costing them money. All of a sudden-like, what I eat became your bidness.
It's actually more pervasive than that. Today on NPR, I heard them say that HIV is down among African American women, but up among gay black men. The figures were bolstered by surveys taken at dance clubs frequented by such men. Now, it's obviously not a racial thing if incidence among black women is improving. And it's not a question of means, since gay men are generally more affluent than average. However, gay men are reputed to be promiscuous, even among gay men (on the one hand, they are men, and on the other, when trying to hide homosexuality from a society that shuns gay men, it's best not to have exclusive relations with one man, or so the old saw goes). My guess, then, is that gay black men have not been taking the necessary precautions and that they need to start doing so. The response of the interviewee, Gary English of People of Color in Crisis, on NPR? "Black gays need to demand that the government do more."
Gary - how about not doing this?
Well, you asked for it. Tobacco too cheap? Food too cheap? Gay black men with HIV too easy? Liquor too cheap? Well, the Nannies of the North have an answer for that: they did indeed set minimum prices for liquor.
All of this puts lie to Barry Schwartz' claim that too many choices leads people to purchase less. Given the choice between the dozens of value meals on the McMenu, and the choice between McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, Whataburger, Taco Bell, Taco Cabana, Subway, Quiznos, Long John Silvers, Popeyes, KFC, Church's, Carl's Jr., Jack in the Box, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Coke, and Pepsi, obviously Americans should be huddling in their living rooms and starving to death instead of enjoying half-price drinks and free tacos during happy hour at the Blue Oyster.
Radley Balko does an admirable job taking on the uber-adults in the Congressional Hunger Fellowship who are apparently studying overeating. Yeah, I almost choked on that, too. Radley makes the point that the problem isn't lack of affordable nutrition (you can get all of your fruits and veggies on less than $1/day), or overeating per se, but rather lack of exercise. He goes further and makes the point that even if you concede that the complaint about Mickey D's and their competitors is true (that is, you accept the foolish claim that they are selling food too cheaply), then what are we supposed to do about it? Enforce minimum food expense laws? Force people to eat less by coercive methods? Heck, you can't even piss upwind of a Quran these days without somebody screaming torture, so how in the world is the Bush Administration going to pry a Big Mac out of Michael Moore's hands? Do you want the Bush Administration having that kind of power? Do you want any administration having that kind of power?
To answer Radley's question regarding when we started worrying about food being too cheap, the answer lies partly in when the public health officials ran out of public health problems. Fortunately, our Third Party Payer "system" solved that by introducing new health problems, specifically that consumers, not having to face the true costs of their choices, chose low-out-of-pocket visits to the doctor and Lipitor instead of healthy lifestyles. Once politicians began to realize that Medicare was robbing them of their God-given right to spend money on million dollar bus stops and other such plans, they notified the taxpayers that smokers and fatties were costing them money. All of a sudden-like, what I eat became your bidness.
It's actually more pervasive than that. Today on NPR, I heard them say that HIV is down among African American women, but up among gay black men. The figures were bolstered by surveys taken at dance clubs frequented by such men. Now, it's obviously not a racial thing if incidence among black women is improving. And it's not a question of means, since gay men are generally more affluent than average. However, gay men are reputed to be promiscuous, even among gay men (on the one hand, they are men, and on the other, when trying to hide homosexuality from a society that shuns gay men, it's best not to have exclusive relations with one man, or so the old saw goes). My guess, then, is that gay black men have not been taking the necessary precautions and that they need to start doing so. The response of the interviewee, Gary English of People of Color in Crisis, on NPR? "Black gays need to demand that the government do more."
Gary - how about not doing this?
Well, you asked for it. Tobacco too cheap? Food too cheap? Gay black men with HIV too easy? Liquor too cheap? Well, the Nannies of the North have an answer for that: they did indeed set minimum prices for liquor.
All of this puts lie to Barry Schwartz' claim that too many choices leads people to purchase less. Given the choice between the dozens of value meals on the McMenu, and the choice between McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, Whataburger, Taco Bell, Taco Cabana, Subway, Quiznos, Long John Silvers, Popeyes, KFC, Church's, Carl's Jr., Jack in the Box, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Coke, and Pepsi, obviously Americans should be huddling in their living rooms and starving to death instead of enjoying half-price drinks and free tacos during happy hour at the Blue Oyster.
Labels: philosophy
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