Radley Balko makes some excellent points in his article what you eat is your business. The general idea is that what you eat is your business until other people have to start paying for your choices. When someone’s chooses to eat unhealthy and endanger their health they are more likely to have a condition that their insurance will have to help pay to fix either through hospital visits, medications, or procedures. This causes higher insurance premiums that everyone has to pay. It should not be the responsibility of the public to pay for an individual’s life choices. He also argues that insurance companies should be aloud to charge higher premiums for clients that are obese and live unhealthy lifestyles. This would give a financial incentive for people to start eating right. Instead of suing fast food restaurants for making people fat it would let people know that they personally are responsible for their lifestyles. They also would be rewarded if they made the choices that are healthy for them. We need to put it into the hands of the people and give them a little incentive to move in the right direction, and we know nothing motivates people like money. Peter Jennings from ABC news did a special news report called “How to get fat without really trying.” His intent of this report was to show his viewers to take responsibility for their own condition.
When reading David Zinczenko he makes some points about how people should be blaming the fast food restaurants for making people obese. People have a lack of info about what they are eating, and they don’t have warning labels like tobacco labels do. He makes a good point about how on fast food meals they should say how many calories and what is in the products, but it isn’t the fast food industry for making people obese. All people should know that fast food isn’t very healthy for anyone, and so by watching how many times a week, or day they eat it is up to them. They know eating all the fast food they do that it isn’t going to be good for their health. So why blame the fast food industries?
When reading Eric Schlosser’s “Your Trusted Friends”, he talks about the history of the Disney and McDonald’s franchise. The section of reading also hits on the how companies like McDonalds and Disney targeting market are younger children. I believe this reading has no barrier. It simply talks about, the marketing tools it uses to get children and their families to buy or use their products. Although great information to know how they do this, it does not talk about major issues that can relate in the world today like, health care. I would rather know that, if not controlled by the government, that private health insurer can raise your premiums if you don’t reach their requirements, rather than learning about some fast food restaurant that gives away little toys in their kid’s meals to keep kids coming back.
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I really liked how this group summarized all of the readings that they had and gave the readers examples from the text. And I would absolutely agree with you on people taking personal responsibility for the choices that they make. When it comes to choosing what you eat, no one forces you to eat fast food, therefore obesity should not be blamed on these industries, they are simply doing there jobs. I think you did a really good job on all of your readings, I would just make sure to pay attention to sentence structure and rambling. Over all great job!
ReplyDeleteI much preferred this article over all the rest. I have been overweight, I lost the weight and have kept it off for over four years now and not planning on changing back to my old lifestyle. I liked his idea for the insurance premiums it made sense to me, higher premiums for over-eating unhealthy foods and tobacco alike, it gives an incentive and that could be good. But when I do think about it more I feel bad because I know my father is over-weight and a smoker and he has a really tough time, I don't want him to pay a higher insurance premium, but at the same time, I want him to change so it might be he push we would need.
ReplyDeleteGuys, the way I read this you did way too much rambling. The point of the paragraph was to make your point in 8-10 sentences by being concise and to the point. I think you came to correct conclusions regarding the purpose of the articles. However, you need to make the topic your own, rather than just restating what the author said and agreeing with him/her. Also, I came to several places in your paragraph that made little or no sense to me. Proof reading would be a good idea next time.
ReplyDeleteI liked how this group used many of the readings to get their point across, it helps to bring in other arguments to make your stand out. I like the idea of raising insurance premiums for those who are involved in risky business. Therefore, the more risky business they are into, the more they will pay for it. This may be something that gives people the incentive to do the right thing and to pay attention to how they live their lives.
ReplyDeleteI liked the fact that this article was about how we, ourselves, are responsible for what we eat. I also believe that we cannot blame the fast food industries for our obesity. I think that by putting higher insurance premiums, people will be able to watch what they eat a little bit more or at least hopefully. There are a couple of errors in there regarding word choice. But you guys did a good job overall with this.
ReplyDeleteThats one for the fast food company. I think that people should watch their health just for that reason that you imposed. The insurance companies paying their medical bills should be all they think about. But what about the good things that the advertising restauraunts do like breakfast to go for the early bird. Not to many kids are eating Mcdonalds everymorning with their parents.
ReplyDeleteBullshit. I guarantee that you can blame not just fast food industries, but the entire food and drug industry, for our nations obesity. It's beneficial to our economy for us to all be fat, bumbling idiots. Why else can you feed an entire family at an average fast food restaurant for under $10, but you would have to pay upwards of $25 a night to feed your family with a healthy meal full of vegetables and proteins. How much is a Snicker's Bar? About 50 cents. How much is a Power Bar? About $1.50 to $2.00. You people are buying this bullshit everyday, and then you claim it's a personal choice. When most families are being supported on as little as a single minimum wage pay check, it doesn't pay to eat healthy. Yet in Europe, we could eat healthy meals every night and never have to wory. Don't any of you find that strange?
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