4 ms·

I wonder if we should expect similar regulation, within my lifetime, for alcohol and sugary foods? Both are strongly associated with a variety of common disease

I wonder if we should expect similar regulation, within my lifetime, for alcohol and sugary foods? Both are strongly associated with a variety of common diseases, and alcohol itself is seemingly associated with numerous common cancers.

h2odragon 4y ago
Your body isn't yours; why should the State allow you to wreck it with poor life choices? The rest of society needs you healthy and consuming, Citizen!
- prirun 4y ago
  Your body is yours, and you are free to wreck it. However, society shouldn't have to pay for your bad behavior via higher health insurance premiums. I'm all for legalizing recreational drugs, including meth, heroin, whatever. Go to a drug or liquor store, show an ID, and get whatever you want. We do it with alcohol, why not drugs? But people who decide to get hooked on shit that's bad for your body - drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, sugar/snacks - should have to pay all their health costs out of pocket, other than X fixed months of health counseling to help them get unhooked. Is it terrible that tobacco companies get people hooked? Of course it is. But kids (and adults) are not completely stupid. They know that smoking and vaping are not good for ones health, but they do it anyway. Whatever regulations the government creates will somehow get bypassed by companies (add a different ingredient that is addictive other than nicotine), and some people are going to continue to do things that they know are bad for their health, because they have no discipline and are irresponsible. Here's a thought: force the cigarette companies to pay for the health insurance of people who smoke, the snack and soft drink companies pay for the people who are obese, and allow pharmaceutical companies to manufacture meth, heroin, cocaine, etc and sell it in liquor stores, but they also have to pay health insurance for their "users", I mean "customers". It's still dumb because all of these put unnecessary strain on the health system, but at least society isn't paying for it.
  - 12ian34 4y ago
    > People who decide to get hooked on shit that's bad for your body... should have to pay all their health costs out of pocket. What about those driven into those situations at young ages when the state should have been looking after them?

h2odragon 4y ago

Your body isn't yours; why should the State allow you to wreck it with poor life choices? The rest of society needs you healthy and consuming, Citizen!

prirun 4y ago
Your body is yours, and you are free to wreck it. However, society shouldn't have to pay for your bad behavior via higher health insurance premiums. I'm all for legalizing recreational drugs, including meth, heroin, whatever. Go to a drug or liquor store, show an ID, and get whatever you want. We do it with alcohol, why not drugs? But people who decide to get hooked on shit that's bad for your body - drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, sugar/snacks - should have to pay all their health costs out of pocket, other than X fixed months of health counseling to help them get unhooked. Is it terrible that tobacco companies get people hooked? Of course it is. But kids (and adults) are not completely stupid. They know that smoking and vaping are not good for ones health, but they do it anyway. Whatever regulations the government creates will somehow get bypassed by companies (add a different ingredient that is addictive other than nicotine), and some people are going to continue to do things that they know are bad for their health, because they have no discipline and are irresponsible. Here's a thought: force the cigarette companies to pay for the health insurance of people who smoke, the snack and soft drink companies pay for the people who are obese, and allow pharmaceutical companies to manufacture meth, heroin, cocaine, etc and sell it in liquor stores, but they also have to pay health insurance for their "users", I mean "customers". It's still dumb because all of these put unnecessary strain on the health system, but at least society isn't paying for it.
- 12ian34 4y ago
  > People who decide to get hooked on shit that's bad for your body... should have to pay all their health costs out of pocket. What about those driven into those situations at young ages when the state should have been looking after them?