4 ms·

There are quite a few things we could do in this direction. For example, we could provide mandatory calisthenics classes for people on medicaid - think some so

There are quite a few things we could do in this direction. For example, we could provide mandatory calisthenics classes for people on medicaid - think some sort of watered down military PT class. If you need medicaid, you need to show up daily and do jumping jacks. Similarly, we could replace food stamps/welfare/etc with a government-issued basket of healthy vegetables, complete with printed instructions on how to cook them. Utah has been having great success helping the poor with (secularized) Mormon style paternalism. Perhaps the rest of us can learn from them. http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic...

eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>Similarly, we could replace food stamps/welfare/etc with a government-issued basket of healthy vegetables, complete with printed instructions on how to cook them. While many people don't have good cooking instruments where they live, I do think making at least part of food aid into a direct provision of healthy fruits and veggies, including those which can be eaten raw-at-worst, would be a large improvement. Honestly, at this stage, government-run cafeterias serving healthy food for free to anyone in need would be a massive improvement. It's a pity that people have such negative feelings about "paternalism" that they'd rather give out food stamps for buying rice and beans at inflated convenience-store prices than actually let the government provide healthy food directly.