People in the US opt to be overweight or to ignore that they are overweight, as is their right. We have an abundance of tasty, high-calorie food, and many peopl

People in the US opt to be overweight or to ignore that they are overweight, as is their right. We have an abundance of tasty, high-calorie food, and many people prefer constantly satisfying their desires to exercising and eating healthy, both of which are difficult to sustain and may not provide a benefit that people realistically value over a shortened, satisfying life. Fat people spend money on weight-loss measures (some don't), not because they dislike their lifestyle, but because they want to change their appearance. They give up when they decide the boon to their appearance is not worth the damage to their lifestyle, which they value. I guess that the people in the pictures would, very nearly, be statistically as fat as we are had they access to the same food and leisure. I think a lot has changed about our culture since then, but I don't suppose the amount of self-control that people possess has decreased significantly, if at all. This to me would be the more interesting discussion than whether or not we are fatter than people from the depression, which is clear. Certainly our marketing culture is responsible for much of the overeating that occurs now. But what about the people themselves? Does a depression era person have a smaller or larger reserve of self-control, and would they bother to allot a portion of it to weight-control? I think we would agree that people are more selfish these days. Whether people are less able to set and achieve goals is a another question. Is a given adult more or less capable of keeping his hand out of the treat jar? The original comment speaks volumes in its terseness, so I will lay it out: the comment poses that people now are less capable of controlling themselves than they were back then. (The alternatives: to indict the role of food in our culture, or to celebrate our improved capacity for producing food, are not what it is intended.) If so, then I would like to see that demonstrated. As a side discussion to poke fun at the negative implications of the statement: If obese people enjoyed a legally protected status (as many other minorities do), would you still feel compelled to make the same comment? What might a discussion protecting obese people look like?