Wendy McElroy says: government has no business in the kitchens of the nation.
I particularly liked this point:
The typical counter-argument is to say that since society pays for our health care, we owe it to society to lead healthy lives. In short, your neighbour has a vested financial interest in what goes into your body. If you won’t take care of it, the government will make you.
This line of reasoning — rather than justifying a Nanny State or a nosy neighbor dictating your personal choices — constitutes a powerful argument against socialized medicine, but it doesn’t do much to say that the government should control what you eat. If socialized medicine had been advertised decades ago as a government mandate to control the minutia of your daily life, then it would probably have never been implemented.
Society does not have any claim over what you do with your own body. If that is what universal, single payer healthcare systems entail, then it's probably an argument in favour of changing the way we deliver healthcare.
This is not itself an argument against single payer healthcare systems. I only mean to suggest that advocates of more regulation should probably not justify this restriction with reference to universal healthcare.
Not much to disagree with here... :)
ReplyDeleteHave you seen the size of the new fast food drinks? I was returning from a canoe trip yesterday and figured I would get a large sprite, to sip on while I drive back from the park...
I had to turn the drink away at the window, least of all due to the fact that I wouldn't have been able to hold it with one hand, let alone fit this monstrous 1L of sugar water into my cup holder.
Who the hell are they catering too anyway? Who drinks this much in one sitting? When 'bottles' of pop are 2L, it makes you wonder why anyone needs 1L for a single meal.
We have real problems...
-TG
Holy sheit, that's a massive drink. I wonder what the calory, fat, sugar count is on a full meal with a large drink.
ReplyDeleteon the other hand, good value for the dollar.
I agree Anonymous. The government really should do something about that...
ReplyDeleteAM - I'm interested: Do you think the government should do absolutely nothing to ensure the health and safety of its citizens?
Similarly, should restaurants and food distributors be allowed to produce/sell whatever they want, leaving the onus on consumers to ensure that what they're eating won't kill them?
I'm interested as to where you draw the line on this issue.
Good question, Johnson. Surely the gov should do stuff to help people make good choice. We're not perfectly rational after all. Banning poutine is retarded though
ReplyDeleteHM
Johnson: I'm not entirely opposed to any regulation, but as someone who thinks that people should be able to consume dangerous psychoactive drugs legally if they want to, kill their unborn babies as a statement of personal choice, ride bikes without helmets etc... i'd have a hard time making an an impassionate defense of the law that bans the sale of unpasturized milk, much any law that banned soda pop or poutine, or any food on the pretence of protecting people from themselves.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Our ideologies, while often aligned as to whom we are raging at, seem to boil down to an essential difference. Namely, you seem to assume that most people are intelligent enough to make informed decisions on their own, whereas I live under the assumption that the majority of people are just plain stupid.
ReplyDeleteHM - I'll go to war over my right to gravy on my fries. Vive la poutine.
I also think that people are stupid. But under those circumstances, I prefer that stupidity not be concentrated into the hands of a few stupid people, but rather dispersed so that people suffer only their own stupidity, not that of others.
ReplyDeleteWhen I look at Canada's Food Guide, with its perennial emphasis on dairy for our calcium needs and animal flesh (albeit lean) for our protein requirements and mercury-laden fish - all foodstuffs on the list because of powerful agribusiness lobbies making the decisions for government - and bearing in mind that these food items are bad for you, the animals themselves, and the environment in which they are produced - then I have to say I don't want this government telling me anything about the subject. DM
ReplyDeleteGood point, DM. The idea that the people who work in the government are some how smarter is wrong at many levels. One of them is that they are not free from political influence.
ReplyDelete