Rather than having one intuitive factor (personal irresponsibility) which explains several highly correlated outputs (obesity, low income, low education) "Intu

Rather than having one intuitive factor (personal irresponsibility) which explains several highly correlated outputs (obesity, low income, low education) "Intuitive" seems like a weasel-word there. How do you define "personal irresponsibility"? How do you measure it? It's practically a mystical concept in comparison to the well-defined, measurable factors that Taubes is concerned with. That Taubes meticulously restricts himself to subjects that he's studied in depth (in this case, obesity and the associated literature) is a sign of intellectual honesty. I admire his refusal to go off on ideological tangents.