Ok -- Who voted yes....?

Xabbarus voted yes

My suggestion is that everyone who reads this post immediatly google the history of taxes.

I do NOT like taxes. Not to mention I don't like to watch the money I EARNED, be pissed away by incompetent politicians.

I´d try better education first. And by better I mean the kind of "continue this behaviour and you´ll die in a few years. Fat as a baloon and with a lot of pain."
Thats basically what my doctor told me two years back. Back when i was in the service i ran my miles each day and was fit, after that i got a desk job, nice one too, and stopped excercising and gained weight. Fast. Luckily i still got my yearly checkup, and at someponit Doc Boris (I call him that, because he looks like one of Frankensteins freinds. Competent guy, though) told me to sit down at his desk. He had a new computer program that calculated Heart failure risks based on various factors, like weight, excercise, smoking, blood fat levels, etc. pp. Then he showed me a video file of an actual heart attack and one about the problems obese people have to face in everyday life. After that gave me a brochure about healthy food and some tipps on cookbooks ("Low Fat 30, the easiest recipes" i can recommend. Tastes great and is easy to cook. And that coming from me means alot!) and told me to get the hell out and come back after six months.
That was two years ago, and since the I have lost 25kgs and have just run my first Marathon.

There are those obese that are sick, all right. But for 95% it is simply a matter of lifestyle. Sure, i invest 12-18 hours a week into training and especially running, but if i compare the time invested in the difference it makes for the quality of life, it is worth every damn minute. So i´d try to shock people into training and healthy food. Worked for me...

It’s another reason why society is falling apart too many stupid suggestions are put forward without getting to the core of the problem. And that’s why we have this problem, just look at the U.K we got teenagers jumping in and out of bed with each other having under age sex, just look at the number of single mothers ranging from 11 to 15 years old.

Another example young women are getting even more drunk night after night bingeing on alcohol, alcohol abuse is out of control in the U.K. the list just goes on and on. And the breakdown in society will continual and why? Simple no one has the answers to solve the problems so they go for the quick fix which causes more problems. :nope:

The Obese ppl those who pig out on junk food and "Are" fat shouldn't be taxed but taught about the damage its doing to there heart. Just like how smokers are always told what the damage can do if you smoke, the same should be push in the face of the obese person, even it they dont like what they hear.

I do think certain junk foods should be taxed, chips (crisps for you Brits) candy bars (not premium chocolate, that's already expensive) etc. Education is good , but if they want to eat themselves to death let them. Had a homemade pear yougurt smoothis for breakast and fresh local strawberries...last night a veggie lebanese plate. So tonight it's Micky D's (joke). Nah I love food just everything in balance and for HEAVEN'S sake let's move a bit shall we? I bike or walk to work for starters....

I share this view and common sense approach of Joea. :yep:

In the poll I voted no.

Dont want to worry you but our government acctualy do tax crisps cakes coke burgers ect, but they do not tax the essentials like bread.

Hence why i can go to the store and buy a loaf for 69p but yet a few cakes will cost £1.49 or something.

Well it's sparked off an interesting debate.

As for voting yes, well someone had to, devil's advocate you see.

The conclusion of the programme as I undestood was that a tax would be impractical to implement.

The thing is one would think that with all the healthy eating programmes on TV along with coverage in the news that most people would have at least some idea of what to eat and what not to eat.

The trick is to catch people when they are young, ie ban the vending machines in schools, do a Jamie Oliver with proper cooking of proper food. Teach kids even as young as 7 home economics and how to cook good food. Oh and ban them from going down the street at lunchtime.

Maybe like cigarettes there should be graphic warning labels on unhealthy foods with pictures of someones liver or whatever as a result of unhealthy eating.

The problem is it is a fast growing problem and a fix is needed quickly. The problem for the government is one of not wanting to look like a nanny state though with labour they don't need to worry.

Overall I think the root cause is that we have become a lazy greedy society.

Devil's Advocate time, in the UK Smokers cost the NHS £1 billion, but through taxes on cigarettes raise around £6 billion in taxes so thus paying off the cost to the NHS and maybe some more for possible costs from non-smokers affected by smoking. Is it not a similar situation?


[quote CB]
fat people can allready be denied medical care on the ground that they are over weight--
[/quote CB]

Come on, that wasn't just because they were obese, it was on health grounds due to the fact that their being overweight massively increased the risk of something going wrong for what was a simple operation. Hip replacement IIRC. Another case of the press twisting the story.

Also I can't see anything politically correct about what we posting here or that programme, actually I am reckoning a lot of people found it offensive.

As for the sweeties and stuff in schools, I don't think it was a grand conspiracy.

way i look at it given all the gene therapy et al technology lurking in the back ground for future use-and the huge investment being poured into research in these areas--and the fact that when it comes to government it is probably fair to say that very little happens by complete accident---

i would think it is fair to say we are being gently (and not so gently) pushed and prodded into a frame of mind that might be more willing to accept the introduction of some of these technologies at some point in the future--

no government worth it's salt can allow the introduction of junk food vending machines into schools (more or less the entire population spends it formulative years eating at school canteens) and be surprised at the strange increase in obesity that results--

well not if they expect any one to take them seriuosly--so yes it is a conspiracy--
the alternative viewpoint is that human IQ has dropped so significantly that we can no longer add one and one and get something in the region of two--or connect consequences to actions in any use-full fashion
and coming from a government that could be considered quite a serious problem either way it's still cause for concern--
i say ok so it's not a holly wood conspiracy on the surface -but when you think about it it's still pretty major--

nothing is going to stop it---in time we will all be subject to genitic screening manipulation alteration etc etc--
what worrys me is who decides what genes are good and what genes are bad---easy you say---but it's not easy at all--

want a section of the populace willing to work long hours for little pay without complaint---? would that be good or bad---?
want a section of the populace highly motivated and intelligent?
would that be good or bad---?
what would a society like this look like..?
i dont really believe we have given it enough thought--
course by the time we do start applying our brains to the subject our brains may be sponsered by NIKE...

wonder who will own the copy-right for all these genitic mods and tweaks--will you be able to buy them ofthe shelf as a package--?
how will we handle major sporting events--?
geniticaly enhanced--
normal----
disabled---

seperate events for each?

who gets to decide what we want women to look like--don't laugh it's a major issue--
what do we do with the failures--?

lovely stuff--all of it is going to crop up sooner or later-

geneticaly enhanced military?
geneticall enhanced airline pilots, train drivers ? policemen? doctors? nurses? politicans? laywers? judges? scientists? teachers? pupils? road haulage contractors? (need less sleep can work longer hours!)

oh yeh it's easy all right ,dead easy once you get started--

how much will it cost?
will it be free and available to all?
if not how will we handle the haves and haves not?
will it be compulsory--?
if so who gets to select the tweaks given and why--?


will you be able to get a job if you are not gentically enhanced?
will you be able to get life insurance--?
can any Company afford to employ normal people when genitically enhanced employees can work longer hours and at betetr productivity--
as a normal will you be left on unemployment benifit as a drain on societys tax payers---will socirty start to descriminate against you ? will the proganda machine be turned against you? your a waste of taxpayers money? you are a drain on the health services resources because you ar more prone to illness than genitically enhanced people--
how will your kids feel at school when they are placed in the remedail classes because they are un-able to compete with the enhanced pupils--
will they set up "specail schools" for normals to prevent the waste of resources?
what sort of education will they recieve at these specail schools--?
what sort of job will they be told they can expect to aspire to--?
if you buy a package of enhancements for your child and the package doesn't work out the way you wanted--will you be able to demand compensation?
What will be your rights as a consumer of these products?--because that is exactly what thes enhancements will be---commercail products--
who will own the copy right for your particular child?
who will own your child.....
will he or she be required to wear some form of identifying mark to advertiseand or promote the company who manufactured and provided the enhancement package used?
think about it now cos once it happens you wont care---
none of the above is out rageous in any way---we allready live in a world that thinks along these sorts of lines--
and finaly -
there is oneset of qualitys i can garantee wont be top of the list for genitic enhancement

compassion
idealism
instinct for fairness
desire for equality

and the other less "use-full" qualitys

all this simply because the alternative is too awfull to contemplate--

learning to live and value each other as we are---warts and all

no i say if we are to gentically modify our selves to improve the species the best mod we could implement would be to remove the desire or imagined "need" to gentically modify our selves --that's the REAL disability we need to address--

Not always true my grandfather died in his mid 80's as from my childhood I remember he was well over weight and smoked cigar's and drunk spirits. Another example a friend of mine dropped dead in late 20's and was a very fit person. I've worked with big guys in the past who worked a lot harder than the normal weight people. I think they should raise the price on the unfit food and lower the price on healthy food, I for one would like to see the cost of fresh fish cheaper than chocolate.

Not strictly true mate, biscuits get VAT added but cakes don't, hence the age old "Jaffa Cakes - are they cakes or biscuits?" argument of which I'm sure everyone is aware:

;)

Hahahaha! Yes! Tax them all!

-S

A simple answer shut down all these fast food joints and slap the tax on fat food and fizzy drinks, use the tax to re-educate fat people and help them. But as we all know this will not happen, the present Labour Government is a good £50 million in the red bought about wasting the money on stupid mad ideas.