That’s right, you tubs of lard out there…fast food joints should have to charge a fat tax to cover the medical expenses of those fat, sloppy pigs who trough this shit daily. Why should the rest of us have to pay for their preventable conditions like diabetes and heart disease? Maybe it would force these fat fuckers to eat healthier and stop jamming up our sidewalks with their massive, waddling
bulks.
This article appears in Sep 4-10, 2008.
you can be fined for burning the wrong plant ( weed ) yet there is no law against pounding Big Macs into your face all day long! Which do you think is more harmful ( and costly!! ) long term?I am glad someone else has the balls to say this. These out of control food porn freaks are draining the system dry. I know some people carry a few extra pounds around as they age ( it natural ). But these morbidly OBESE people chowing down on fast food and deep fried garbage need to either shape up or die a fast death rather than pass the bill on to the taxpayers for their medication and feet amputations from diabetes. Not surprising that the top 5 selling RX drugs are not things to fight cancer or aids, but things to help indigestion, acid reflux, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and to help deal with the side effects of the poison we keep putting in out body.if you need a scooter to keep mobile or can’t walk a flight of stairs with our resting half way to the top STAY OUT OF FAST FOOD PLACES!! Its one thing to have a wopper and now and then ( as i do ) but if you can’t see your feet and you are eating a baconator that’s not food, its a slow motion suicide that i am going to have to pay for !OP – right on, i am also tired of footing the bill for fat out of control fuckheads who don’t know when to say when. We have too much goddamn food in this Hemisphere.
Soooo, what about the skinny bitches who eat at McD’s? Do they get their meal tax free? Should we put a scale next to the cash to see who pays tax and who doesn’t? Fuck off already…it’s not YOUR tax dollars, it’s OUR tax dollars that provide different services for different people.
I second that motion. The majority of people that are over-weight seem to be morbidly obese, not just fat. It’s gross. Time for those fuckers to pay up.
Answer: people who believe they’ve bought the right to tell others how to live.Question: what are… taxpayers?
this is a stupid as fuck suggestion. I am skinny, i eat there all the time. Why should i be given a fat tax? Next, what about the fat people, that never eat there? Why are they exempt?
And why the heck are my tax dollars paying for the health care costs of the numpties who drink and drive and put their head through a windshield? Or the thug who gets himself boot fucked? Or the smoker? or the athlete and their sports related injuries? Oh, Right, because someday I might end up in the hospital for some lifestyle-related injury/illness and want quality care without having to sell off all my possessions. It’s UNIVERSAL healthcare you nitwits. That means everyone pays (including fat people) and everyone can use…stop being so stupid and selfish. It’s still way cheaper than if you had to pay a for-profit insurance company to cover you for the costs of a for-profit hospital.
yah if there needs to be a tax it should be these corporations that are making millions off selling cheap shitty food. Make it less profitable for them to sell that trash and you might see things change.
That’s what I was going say, apply the taxes to the restaurants. This will encourage them to serve healthier food options to customers to avoid the taxes. OR base the tax on what is advertised. Everytime I see an ad for the baconator my mouth waters, but knowing the 800 calories included in just the burger I stay away. Taxing the ads would keep the government from forcing small restaurants from tracking the fat contents of all of their meals while making the big offenders pay.
Miles, as usual, you are the voice of reason! So true: we all have lifestyles that will affect what health care we will ultimately need. What kind of arrogance does it take to say “we should all get health care except for this group of people (fill in the blank: faggots, single mothers, drug users, fat people, old people, etc. etc.)”LL, it doesn’t take “balls” to attack a person or group of people anonymously on a bitch board; misguided audacity, maybe. There was absolutely no suggestion to an actual solution to this problem which is becoming bigger and bigger (pun intended). My suggestion would be more corporate accountability, because the reality is that if you’re selling, there’s always some poor sucker who’s buying.I think these fast food places all operate on the same principle: the more ubiquitous they are, the less able you will resist dropping in if you’re hungry. Perhaps if there were a cap on the sheer number of shit-peddlers per capita, we might have a fighting chance at better, healthier options.Oh, and by the way, anyone eat in a hospital lately? Do you have any idea what kind of shit they serve there? My mother, suffering from leukemia and having no appetite anyway, certainly wasn’t enticed into eating by getting served mashed potatoes, shrivelled peas and canned whatever. I brought food to her every day so that she would eat. I know I’m going off on a tangent, but I guess my point is: bad food has become normalized to the point where this is what they serve in the places that are supposed to heal you. I would advocate a lifestyle adjustment for ALL members of society, which has to begin in our governments and institutions and trickle down from there. Obesity is a symptom of a greater problem.
it should be the corporations who pay, pure and simple, easier based on calories or maybe just quantity of food. In Europe there is no such thing as supersize, and the meals at places like McShits come with a small drink and fry- you need to pay extra for the larger sizes. THAT appears to work there- maybe it would work here too? if we simply reduced portion sizes at these restaurants (and others as well- seriously, why do I need a PLATTER everytime I go get a meal? half of it ends up in the trash or doggy bagged for later), taxed corporations for exceedingly bad food, and had consumers who chose to buy larger portions pay more for the privelege, then maybe things would change.As it is, been to a grocery store lately? chips and pop are cheaper than bread and milk. I just read a story in the herald today bout single mothers who were saying it was cheaper to buy the crap than fresh, healthy food. THAT is the bigger problem, and should be addressed! Those companys who produce cheap processed crap should pay a tax for it that can be then relocated to subsidize local producers of healthy fare so the good food costs the least and everyone can enjoy it.
Our healthcare is pretty good compared to other systems. We should also have universal higher education, too. That way we mightn’t have to put up with ignorant, simpleheaded simon dipshits professing imbecilic solutions to their socially and mentally retarded prejudices.
What an arsehole. You must be a Nubodys member and think you will live forever. Guess what, junior: when your joints wear out or your bones snap or your brain (such as it is) shorts out and you get to go into a home and have pablum shovelled into your trap until you are 102 (don’t worry, you won’t know what is going on the last 20 years or so) you are just as much a burden as those people you loathe.
Keith what do you have against Nubody’s members? You’re angry they’re trying to stay healthy and fit???
Keith – being a fat useless fuck who can’t even reach around to wipe his own ass is preventable….old age isnt’as far as both being a drain on the system, that an erroneous argument to make.
About 37% of Nova Scotians are considered obese. The provincial heath care budget is about 1.8 billion. The cost of obesity related illness is about 120million / year for the province. That’s 6.7% of the annual budget. All in all, I looks like fat people pay about 37% of the taxes in this province and use only ~7% of the health care budget. I think they more than pay for the services they receive, so Lovinglife and all the rest can relax knowing that you are not personally shouldering the bill for overweight people’s health care costs.
besides, that’s a slippery beurocratic slope to get on…how do we define what is ‘fat’? how do we define what is self induced fat, and what is medical, genetic, a result of other circumstances (injury etc limiting mobility for a period of time etc), or body type? would it be based on BMI, which has been critized for being inherently flawed? Would it be based ont he fashion industry produced image of weight, which would mean only drip fed anorexics would be tax free?you can see where I’m going with this. one persons fat is another person’s chubby is another persons obese is another persons hot. I frankly do not want to live in a world where someone else is constantly judging me before I can treat myself to the rare big mac.
I actually think taxing junk/fast food is kind of a good idea. It would make it less attractive for anyone (thin, fat, average) to put that garbage in their bodies. If it were more expensive, people would treat it more like, well, a treat, instead of an everyday option.
Miles, I think you are missing the assumption that obese people probably use, at base, about 37% of the health care budget as per their population share, and then ADD about 7% for specific obesity-related illnesses. Their use of the system therefore totals 43% (if we stick with this grossly oversimplified model), and is disproportionately higher per capita than the rest of the population.I’ve said it before – if you walk through the halls of a hospital, particularly in the areas around any chronic disease clinic, it becomes very plain upon observing those sitting in line just what the determinants of health are. In very few other places will you see such a high concentration of people that are *visibly* uneducated, poor, and obese (and people, please don’t give me any shit about it being impossible to say someone is visibly uneducated. At the extremes, you sure can tell.) This is not snobbery; this is simply the fact that those factors lead to poor health and land people in hospital in disproportionate numbers.
So, don’t think I am suggesting that obesity is not a problem in Nova Scotia, because it clearly is. I just don’t think calling people “fat” and “useless” is a very appropriate way of dealing with the issue. As for the math, fair point Jammie. But consider what percentage of the annual health budget goes to “everyday” or base costs? Are we talking just check ups and the occasional ER visit? Either way, consider how much of the health budget old-age related diseases eat up? Are you upset for having to pay to cover their “over the baseline” related costs? Smokers too. And Athletes. And babies…they use up a lot of health resources too. Maybe the solution is to not BLAME fat people for being fat and using all your tax dollars, but trying to attack the root of the problem. Maybe if more of those tax dollars went to fund education and gym classes, afterschool sports programs, active living and healthy eating ad campaigns, subsidized get fit programs for the obese, etc, etc, we would change people’s attitudes about McDonald’s and people would stop going because they choose not to, not because legislation restricts them by gouging their pocket books.
Oh Miles I don’t disagree with you. But it should be noted that babies and old age are a natural part of the life cycle. Packing the bulk of two or three extra people onto a frame designed for just one is not. And yes, if we are to tax fast food we should also tax cigarettes. But of course we already do that in a big way.
Most health care dollars are spent on hospital care, of which the poor and obese are disproportionate users, on physician care, and on drugs. A tiny fraction of health dollars are spent on wellness promotion, healthy eating, physical activity, etc. and illness prevention activities, which could potentially greatly reduce the need for hospitalizations, drugs, etc.As a society we go to quick fixes and short term solutions. We need to fix our culture to, as you say, get to the root of the problem.
I don’t disagree with you at all Jammie (and miles too)- we need, as a society, to fix the root cause of the problem. which includes doing something about the attitude so apparent in the OPs post! Just because someone is overweight doesn’t mean they are slobs, disgusting, rude, uneducated or bad people. Those attitudes need to cahnge just as much as their pant sizes.as far as all that math and numbers think of this: as the baby boomers age, we’re getting a larger number of old folks in the system. but not just old folks- old folks who are living longer, and beleive they are entitled to certain things their bodies just weren’t meant for (example 60 plus who’ve had hip, knee, you name it replacement so they can sky dive just for an extreme example). If we’re going to start talking about disproprortionate drains on the system, why not that? People today live far far far longer by unnatural means then we ever did before, and the idea of just letting people die when nature intends is usually met with outrage. I’m not advocating iceflow time for those over 65, but if we’re opening that discussion for smokers and fat people, why not old people too?
I want those idiots that crack their skull open becuase they were trying to be some x-treme sports tool to pay an extra ‘you are not Tony Hawk tax’. Why should I pay for those suicidal morons? Same with a rockclimber. They should AUTOMATICALLY pay more in a ‘god didn’t give you wings muda-fucka’ tax. How about someone who gets a hurnia from lifting too much weights, he should pay a ‘dumbass know your limit tax’. Or someone who has vitamin deficiency from being a vegan and not studying up on it, they should pay a ‘stupid cunt, humans are omnivores’ tax.How about someone who jaywalks and gets hit? They should pay a ‘your ass isn’t a bumper’ tax. Or someone who attempts suicide, they should pay a ‘you really are a failure, better luck next time’ tax.How much do you think we will pay for seinor care in the next couple years. We are going to have a shitload of ‘baby boomers’ who are going to be cashing in. Think about it, they came from a home with probably 11 brothers and sisters. How many do we have now, two, three? The dynamic is turning into a ‘diamond’ in design where there are less pepole shouldering and having to support more things and it is DECREASING. So, fat people are a blessing, less people to live longer to sponge more from the system. Heart attack means no old people tax!
While those ‘new types of taxes’ are funny, Gimpy….it really bugs me, that people keep referring to tax dollars as ‘MY Tax dollars’ or the stupid comments like “Why should ‘I’ have to pay…” IMO, we live in the best country in the world. I pay a shit load of taxes…more than the average and I only visit the doctor maybe once a year (same goes for the rest of my family). No one in my family is on medication and there are people in my family who are over weight and even obese, yet none are a strain on the health care system. But, if some day one of us comes down with something serious, we can be sure that we will not go into debt or lose everything trying to pay for the care needed.I promote healthy living, and encourage my overweight friends and family to eat better and exercise more, but the truth is most of them are healthier than the average person.
I know it is ridiculous. Taxes are a way of life EVERYWHERE. Either they jack up the prices of everything (taxes are already calculated and are just reflected in the price) or you see what the cost of the object is and THEN you have to calculate the tax (personally, I prefer the previous method, that way $199.99 is just $199.99). If the country doesn’t pay tax, the country fails because it has no infrustructure. Now, health care is important because it keeps doctors employed and a healthy society is a productive society. Likewise if there were no vices the country would fail because why go out if you can’t treat yourself to vice? Why would people travel if they cannot indulge in vices? A burger is a vice and through it fuels the economy that makes it possible to employ teenagers for jobs other than blowjob artists. It’s a fact of life.