On Apr 29, 8:29 am, The Master
nospam.sdf.lonestar.org.nospam>
wrote:> On Tue, 29 Apr 2008, Marge wrote:
>> What if no one were fat?
>> Imagine a lean and healthy America: The savings on medical, fuel, food and
>> other costs would be enough to give every U.S. household more than $4,000.
>
> If everyone was skinny, the fat people would buy less food, need to buy
> less gas to make their car move, save money on medical costs, things of
> that sort. The majority of the savings would go to the fat people. The
> only savings that an already skinny person gets would be do to the
> lowering of demand. Less gas bought means less demand, means lower
> prices. Very misleading story already, and that's only in the synopsys.
>
>> In the United States today, 66%% of adults are overweight. Almost 33%% of
>> adults are obese, and 4.7%% are morbidly obese, or more than 100 pounds
>> overweight. But . . .
>
> 33%% skinny
> 33%% over
> 33%% obese
>
> Sounds like the normal numbers... Skinny people are outnumbered... We
> need to elect a fat president, to protect the rights of fat americans.
>
>> Productivity would rise, potentially creating tens of thousands more
>> jobs or higher wages all around.
>
> I call bull shit on that one.
>
> If I was skinny, my productivity wouldn't be affected. I have a desk job,
> I sit on my fat ass all day long. If it was skinny, I'd still be sitting
> on it at my desk. Would I some how sit on my ass faster?
>
> Do you mean the productivity of fat people who have manual labor jobs?
> How many fat people have manual labor jobs? If they have to be on their
> feet walking 8 hours a day, that's a lot of exercise. And since they are
> already doing it, I doubt that productivity would rise much, if at all.
>
> No new jobs would be created, nor would wages increase.
>
> Arguably, since food would be more abundant, farmers would go out of
> business. People buying less food means that less time at the check stand
> at the store, which means less cashiers would be needed. In fact, there
> would be more unemployment, not the other way around...
>
>> $487 billion in gas, sweat and stretch pants
>> Yes, it sounds a little wild, but the implications of a leaner, meaner
>> country add up to a weighty $487 billion. That's almost 3.5%% of gross
>> domestic product, no small sum.
>
> So the economy would actually slow down, while the dollar is already
> dropping on the open market. Great idea...
>
>> Mind you, only 1.8%% of that is new growth.
>
> None of it would be new growth. You don't grow demand when it drops.
>
>> Savings on fuel for cars and airlines due to their lighter loads would top
>> $5 billion,
>
> Exxon would make less money, and less demand means less workers are
> needed, so Exxon would terminate the employment of workers. Most of that
> "savings" would be taken away due to the lost income of workers.
>
>> Plus-sized clothing costs 10%% to 15%% more, so shoppers would save $10
>> billion on shirts, pants and dresses.
>
> Needing less cotton for each shirt means the garment workers need to spend
> less time making each shirt, which means less workers are needed. Less
> cotton per shirt means the cotton growers have less demand for cotton.
> Again, most of that "savings" would be taken
>
>> Cynthia Istook, an associate professor in textile apparel at North Carolina
>> State University, says the economies of making fewer sizes would be
>> tremendous. Clothing makers could then afford to offer more variety in hip
>> and bust sizes,
>
> A lot of women's "plus sized" clothing stores offer that already! They
> would all go out of business though.
>
>> Because 3,500 calories translates into a pound of fat, somewhere along the
>> way, America's 227 million adults have eaten 16 trillion calories too many.
>> That's 14 billion Big Mac meals, with fries and a soda. Eliminate those and
>> you wipe out $81 billion, or McDonald's past four years of sales.
>
> And then where would teenagers get their first job? More "savings" thrown
> out the window.
>
> Mind you, I'm not even talking about the lost income due to the stock
> market. What would McDonald's share holders do? That's right, dump the
> stock.
>
>> If Americans were slim and maintained their weight by eating 150 fewer
>> calories a day (half a slice of pizza), that could snip roughly 6.5%%, or
>> $20 billion a year, off U.S. farmers' sales (assuming no extra exports).
>
> Really shafting US farmers, who wouldn't need to hire as much farm help,
> thus negating more "savings" again.
>
>> The medical costs of obesity-related problems such as diabetes, stroke and
>> heart disease run near $140 billion, or more than 6%% of all health-care
>> costs.
>
> Doctors, hospitals, drug companies... More workers out of jobs.
>
>> Productivity in the workplace would jump as people took fewer sick days and
>> spent less time at work feeling unwell.
>
> I have taken about 3 or 4 sick says since I started with my current job
> back in 2004, and currently have 234.17 hours on the books for vacation.
>
>> What to do with all that money?
>
> Give most of it back in the form of unemployed workers having no money to
> spend, except for what they get in unemployment benefits.
>
>> Some even argue that global warming would slow a mite,
>> as consumption of gas, energy, fertilizer and methane-producing cattle
>> decreased.
>
> And some scientists STILL INSIST that global warming is a 100%% natural
> cycle. They just aren't given press coverage.
I agree with you Bro!
Somebody should write an article about how much money we would save if
there was no hatred, prejudice, and bigotry in this world. Just think
of how much money would be saved if we didn't have any more wars, and
how much would be saved if we feed all the hungry people in the world,
because hunger, and lack of resources, often lead to violence and war
which exacts heavy costs in the number of deaths, and damage to
civilization.
I grew up knowing about the cost of hatred when I went to school as a
kid, back in the 1960s. I'm 46 years old now.
And yes, I'm a fat person at only 5 ft 6 in and 400 pounds.
When I was 4 years old, I fell out of a car, and busted my left knee
on the road, so as a kid, my left leg was crippled up, and I walked
with a limp, and I could not run, and I was lousy at sports.
My mother taught me how to read and write before I even started
school, and by the time I was only in the 3rd grade, I was already
reading at the high school and adult level. When I was 13, I scored
150 points on a standard IQ test, so going through school should have
been a breeze for me. Science was my favorite subject, especially
Astronomy.
But then, back in 1962 I believe, the President's Council on Physical
Fitness said that Americans were out of shape and that we all needed
to go on 50 mile hikes, and then, our schools became super gung-ho on
Physical Education, while cutting back on academics.
In the 4th grade, I was suspended from school because I failed to
climb a rope in a gymnasium. In the 5th grade I had my first male
teacher who made my life a living Hell in the PE class. He would
humiliate me in front of all the other students, and one day he
punched me in the stomach with a basketball. Then there was another
time when our class went to the school library. There was this one
Astronomy book that I wanted to check out, but the teacher would not
allow me to have that book. When I asked why he let all the other kids
check out any book they wanted, but not me, he dragged me out of the
library, out into the hallway, grabbed me by the shoulders, and bashed
my head up against the corner of a concrete block wall. The following
year, that teacher was fired and could not get a teaching job anywhere
else. But for years after that, from the age of 11 years and through
out my teen ages years, I had dizzy spells and headaches as a result
of my head injuries.
I suffered a lot of mental and emotional problems, and during my teen
age years, I gained a lot of weight, and I got fat, weighing about 280
pounds by the time I was only 17 years old.
In school I was harassed and bullied around by the jocks. I was called
a "fat sissy boy" because I didn't care for sports, and in high
school, I wanted nothing to do with the drug scene. I tried to avoid
anyone who was using drugs, but a couple of pusher keep harassing me,
trying to get me to try some of their stuff. Then I made a stupid
mistake. I turned them in, because they wouldn't leave me alone. After
than, I was harassed even more. In the art class, my oil paintings
were destroyed, I had books stolen from me, and my life was even
threatened, so for my own safety, I had to drop out of school. After
that, I had a total breakdown, mentally and emotionally, and spent
three weeks in a mental hospital, where I was beatened on a regular
bases, and one night, I was raped by an older man. I was 17 years old
at the time, and after I came home from the mental hospital, after the
effects of the drugs wore off, my weight shot up from 220 pounds to
around 280 pounds in less than two months!
When I turned 18, I was in no condition mentally and emotionally to
holed a job, so my mother had to file a claim for disability on my
behalf, and of course, this was back in 1969 during the Viet Nam war,
so I had to register for the draft, but the Army reject me because I
was about 120 pounds overweight. Actually, I was glad for that,
because it meant that I didn't have to go to Viet Nam and die for a
country that treated me like a 4th class citizen.
Since I never graduated High School, I took the GED Test, and I scored
high in it, and got a certificate that is as good as a High School
Diploma, and from 1975 to 1978 I tried going to Collage where I
majored in Physics and Astronomy, but I never completed my degree. I
was under a lot of emotional stress. I made Bs in most of my math
classes, and I love Trigonometry. For me its' fun, but I couldn't hack
being under too much stress. I have become emotionally fragile, unable
to control my emotions, probably due to my head injuries and some
other factors in my life.
And so, I have been a victim of prejudice and hatred, the same kind of
bigotry being spouted off by the likes of people like Shirley Skeel,
who is a slimy green with the lust for money. All she cares about is
money, and she does not care if human lives are put on the Sacrificial
Alter of Capitalism and Greed just to save a few bucks.
I'm more interested in saving human lives than saving money!
As for me, being fat has done me no harm, and has actually protected
me from more serious injuries from beatings I had received in the
past. But the hatred, just for being different, had taken a far
greater tole on me than my weight ever could.
Hey, because I'm fat, I actually save more energy. I don't need to
have my thermostat set so high during the winter months and have my
home heated at tropical temperatures as thin people do. I'm too fat to
drive a car, so I use public transportation, thus saving more energy.
Also, I have a slow metabolism. Normal body temperature is about 98.6
degrees, while mine averages 96.5 degrees. That usually indicated
hypothyroid, but I've been checked for that, and the lab results
always come back negative. I can maintain my weight on fewer calories
than the average size person, thus saving more on food. It's been said
that to maintain a weight of 400 pounds, that it would take about 4000
calories, but I can maintain my weight on just 2500 calories per day.
I know a lot of skinny people, like my younger brother for example:
who is much taller, and only weighs about 160 pounds, and he eats a
Hell of a lot more than I do, but he is not anymore active than I am,
because he is also crippled up and walks with a cane, and he needed to
use a cane about 10 years before I finally needed one myself. He has
had surgery done on one of his feet, and he has incurred far more
medical expenses than I have.
I'm not harming anybody else, but I have been harmed several times
repeatedly, and it has cost me much. I'm unable to hold a job, not
because of my weight, but because I'm far less able to cope with
emotional stress than most people, thanks to all that had happened to
me, so my earning potential is greatly reduced. I plan to go back to
working on my oil paintings again, and perhaps I might be able to
supplement my meager income.
And so, someone should publish an article about the high cost, of
prejudice, hatred, and bigotry!
I say we need more fat people in this world, and we need to get even
fatter!
Most of the fat people I have known were very kind and gentle people.
I only knew a few who were mean or aggressive, but most of us fat
people are gentle and more docile. We are far less pron to committing
violent crimes, and fat men have much lower suicide rates than thin
people.
I hope more and more people become obese, and when every man, woman,
and child is obese, we will all be too soft and weak to want to fight
in anymore bloody wars, and we will have to depend more on human
intelligence to solve our conflicts, and seek more peaceful solutions.
Increasing obesity around the world may one day bring about world
peace, thus saving even more money.
