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what might also add to the difference is the focus on a healthy lifestyle and assistance on maintaining it for the less fortunate in society. For instance, giv

what might also add to the difference is the focus on a healthy lifestyle and assistance on maintaining it for the less fortunate in society. For instance, giving someone who is poor benefits so they can afford healthy food (or even better, taxing unhealthy foods and using that money to subsidize healthy food) will actually reduce healthcare costs down the line. A healthy lifestyle goes a long way in regards to sick preventions. I wonder if physical activity also has to do with this? the U.S is a very car oriented nations, which means people walk less?

RobertRoberts 9y ago
>I wonder if physical activity also has to do with this? the U.S is a very car oriented nations, which means people walk less? I visited Japan, and I saw 1 single fat guy. He also was the only homeless man I saw in Tokyo... (it's illegal to pan-handle in Japan, so he did the universal thumb/fist-to-the-mouth-head-back motion to ask for a drink.) And yes, everyone walks a ton there. There's no reason people can't walk here, they just don't. To quote the movie L.A. Story "Go for a walk? In L.A.? Hahahahah."
- phil21 9y ago
  > There's no reason people can't walk here, they just don't. You really think there is no reason? I mean you chose Japan as your example - I walked everywhere every single day I spent in Japan as well. Because the cities (heck, entire country) are set up with human pedestrians in mind as first class citizens, and are laid out in a manner which makes everywhere from small villages to Tokyo very walkable. For any trip under a mile or two, walking was always clearly the best option. The US? It's effectively a giant suburb except for an exceedingly tiny number of dense urban cores built prior to to the invention of the automobile. Walking in those areas is dangerous (many times done on purpose by city planners to discourage pedestrian "riff raffs"), typically pointless (e.g. you have to walk to walk as it's square miles of nothing but single family homes), and honestly utterly boring and socially disconnecting. Walking 4 blocks in my suburban neighborhood in Minneapolis is a soul crushing tour of how disconnected the community is (you likely won't even talk to a single person) - walking 4 blocks in my dense Chicago neighborhood is interesting and helps build community as the density and walking/transit focus forces the community to interact on a daily basis. I am quite convinced the suburbification of the US after WWII is the primary cause for the breakdown in social cohesion we're starting to see.
  - RobertRoberts 9y ago
    I think most people (guess) live in a place they can walk in, yet choose not to. Every small town, every safe large city area. I think the non-safe areas are quite small comparatively speaking. Then there is the simple notion, take the time to go somewhere to walk. I have relatives that do this, I know it's not impossible based on your living location. If you want to bring economics into this, then there's a vastly more complicated topic. Yes, it's way easier to walk in Tokyo (any different than New York?), but I was also in rural Japan, and there was no more unique motivation to walk there than in rural USA. I think social cohesion can be broken with just the introduction of smartphones and social media, so sure, it's possible suburbification made some things worse. But it's now socially acceptable to discuss and display on public media what used to be considered perverted and depraved, did suburbs cause this? What society can be decent when being decent isn't valued by society?

RobertRoberts 9y ago

>I wonder if physical activity also has to do with this? the U.S is a very car oriented nations, which means people walk less? I visited Japan, and I saw 1 single fat guy. He also was the only homeless man I saw in Tokyo... (it's illegal to pan-handle in Japan, so he did the universal thumb/fist-to-the-mouth-head-back motion to ask for a drink.) And yes, everyone walks a ton there. There's no reason people can't walk here, they just don't. To quote the movie L.A. Story "Go for a walk? In L.A.? Hahahahah."

phil21 9y ago
> There's no reason people can't walk here, they just don't. You really think there is no reason? I mean you chose Japan as your example - I walked everywhere every single day I spent in Japan as well. Because the cities (heck, entire country) are set up with human pedestrians in mind as first class citizens, and are laid out in a manner which makes everywhere from small villages to Tokyo very walkable. For any trip under a mile or two, walking was always clearly the best option. The US? It's effectively a giant suburb except for an exceedingly tiny number of dense urban cores built prior to to the invention of the automobile. Walking in those areas is dangerous (many times done on purpose by city planners to discourage pedestrian "riff raffs"), typically pointless (e.g. you have to walk to walk as it's square miles of nothing but single family homes), and honestly utterly boring and socially disconnecting. Walking 4 blocks in my suburban neighborhood in Minneapolis is a soul crushing tour of how disconnected the community is (you likely won't even talk to a single person) - walking 4 blocks in my dense Chicago neighborhood is interesting and helps build community as the density and walking/transit focus forces the community to interact on a daily basis. I am quite convinced the suburbification of the US after WWII is the primary cause for the breakdown in social cohesion we're starting to see.
- RobertRoberts 9y ago
  I think most people (guess) live in a place they can walk in, yet choose not to. Every small town, every safe large city area. I think the non-safe areas are quite small comparatively speaking. Then there is the simple notion, take the time to go somewhere to walk. I have relatives that do this, I know it's not impossible based on your living location. If you want to bring economics into this, then there's a vastly more complicated topic. Yes, it's way easier to walk in Tokyo (any different than New York?), but I was also in rural Japan, and there was no more unique motivation to walk there than in rural USA. I think social cohesion can be broken with just the introduction of smartphones and social media, so sure, it's possible suburbification made some things worse. But it's now socially acceptable to discuss and display on public media what used to be considered perverted and depraved, did suburbs cause this? What society can be decent when being decent isn't valued by society?