artist4perry wrote:parfait wrote:artist4perry wrote:Michigan Girl wrote:parfait wrote:Michigan Girl wrote:I don't mind helping children ...I donate many, many hours to helping children, they are my passion!!
But people have got to learn to help themselves and they have to want to help themselves. Someone
has to teach this to our young or they will grow up, like their parents, believing that their welfare
is the responsibility of everyone but themselves!!
Does anyone remember when families helped each other in times of need and crisis?!?!?
When we didn't rely on a system, but each other?!?! When communities banned together?!?
When children took care of their aging parents and grandparents and their grown children if
need be?!?! I know that if I lost everything today I could show up on the doorstep of any
family member and I would be taken care of until I got on my feet!! I also know that I would
not be allowed to sit on my ass and expect a government to take care of me. These
are some of the values I grew up with and I think they are very much lacking in this world today!!
The children, yes lets take care of the children, but are we really helping in the long run?!?
I want to know about the looooong haul!!!
Woah, I didn't expect you to have some decent points, but you do. The problem is that you're basically saying that every person who "needs welfare" is in fact just lazy, and needs to work. That's ridiculous. One shouldn't be lenient with the ones who's lazy. But come on MG, your mindset just speaks for itself. It's egotistical.
The thing that'll cost you tax payers the most isn't a slightly higher tax, but the effects of the growing obesity epidemic. That'll slowly but surely cripple the health care system, as well as the job market. If the government had some balls, it would put some bad ass taxes on unhealthy crap food, and force its citizens to eat healthy. That'll solve a shit loads of problems right there, as well as prevent even more.
1.) You've got to be kidding me/yourself?!?!
2.) Absolutely, I should have clarified! Those that want to help themselves and try to help themselves are the very people I would
give my last dime to!!
3.) The food thing ...yeah, I can see you have a burr up your ass about our eating habits and I agree!!
4.) You
have got to be kidding me ...
Parfait, you speak of our obesity problem. But you don't truly know the problems that lead to it. Our schools have starchy unhealthy meals. Why? Cost. Good food.......healthy food is more expensive. The poor can eat cheeper with bad food. Chicken, fish, vegetables........these are expensive. Junk food feeds hungry stomaches cheeper. When good food can become more affordable, then people will eat better.
Fast food joints increased the size of their portions, making people feel as if they need to eat it all. I was raised to "clean my plate". I don't teach my children that. I teach them to push away when they begin to feel full.
Our old system of the food pyramid taught high carbs, and did not stress vegetables and fruit. A great deal of Americans were raised to eat badly. Not to mention the south, where if it could be eaten it was fried. Soul food, comfort food, all the ways people ate when they were raised on a farm and worked physically from sunup to sundown, was passed on to children who got jobs behind a desk. These children still cook like mom and dad.
Not to mention that our lifestyles leave us little time to exercise. I know as a teacher I seldom get the oportunity to exercise. I am on my feet walking around my classroom all day. I sometimes work from 7:30 am to 6-9 pm doing grading and class prep. I get up at 4:30 am because I have to get ready and drive an hour and fifteen minutes to work. And on the nights I work till 6-9pm that does not include the long drive home. Then you are looking at 7:15-10:15 pm before I can even get home. Then I have responsibilites to clean house and feed my family.
Bullshit, MG. I make valid points.
And a4p; it's like that in every country in the world. People are slowly killing them self all over the world, and it's becoming a huge problem. Some healthy food is more expensive true, but far from everything is. Supplements isn't necessary, except for concentrated cod liver oil, which
everyone should take each day, but that's about it. Fast food isn't cheaper than healthy food; that's just not true. It's all about changing routines, for example; change normal hot dogs for turkey hot dogs, pasta and white rice with barley and whole grain rice etc. The problem is that the government (that includes France's) doesn't got enough balls to tax shit food, so that people would be forced to eat healthy. Sure, a lot would whine about the government taking away their right to
choose, but who cares - it's that right to choose who fucked them up in the first place.
I'm sorry, but even a couple of extra dollars isn't more important than your own health! It's truly sad how many people are willing to ruin their life just cause they love cookies and burgers. I honestly don't get it.
I disagree. The cost of things here are not the same as your country and yes junk food feeds more empty bellies than good food. It costs double to eat right. I try to buy fish and chicken more. But I have the luxury of a good job. Many families are without a good job these days. If they have a job at all. Tell that to the families I teach. Tell them they are just going to pay more for the crappy food, so now they can't afford to eat hardly at all. How many children do you try to feed? Chicken and fish are more expensive than pork or beef. I am not talking about gorging on cookies. I am talking many eat a great deal of red meat. Hamburger helper to streatch a dollar. Breads and starches to streatch a meal to feed more on less. Is it what is best, no. But instead of taxing the bad food. Bring down the prices of good food. Educate the people. Don't punish.
Let's get one thing straight; The US isn't the only place in the world where there's a extreme abundance of overweight people. Around 43 % of France is overweight (BMI 25>30). Around 65 % of the US is overweight in comparison. A national French study showed that annual overweight growth is around 17 %; in children! To correct the clusterfuck that is the food industry would be such a big job, that'll never, ever happen. The food industry have perfected the usage of cheap labor, to the point that a worker have to work a 16 hour shift to give them enough money to get by. The chicken you eat is most likely from Thailand; where a normal day is around 16 hours of hard fucking work. It's either that, or prostitute yourself to the tourists - that's how the food industry is! It can be tea, rice, chicken, spice, eggs - whatever! I gladly pay a bit more so that Ho Ping can go take the three hour bus ride from his tiny appartment to the village and go see his kids.
Think about it; China's obesity problem is almost non existent, and they live on far less pay than a normal working American/Frenchman/etc does. It's about taking responsibility of your own lives, and whatever routines you have. It's about stepping up to the plate (pun kinda intended) and do what's best, not only for your own body, but society as a whole. I'm not judging you Ginger, Lora, Lisa, Anne, Debra and Gertrud; I'm sure you all are fine moms, and hard working! But I've worked as a personal trainer for a couple of years at my dad's clinic, and I've seen first hand what real obesity will do with your body, your mind and the people around you. We had a beautiful little girl there once, Audrey, who was around 8-ish and she was completely crippled by her weight. She got bullied and picked on and just really couldn't understand why she had to be
like that, when most of the other kids at school could play outside etc. And to see her face when she improved and lost her weight (I didn't interact with her a lot, since her cased had to be handled my professionals); man, that was fucking priceless.
It pisses me off that people (corporations) are so god damn hungry for money that they'd hurt kids, and grown ups for that matter (but they should be able to take some fucking responsibility, but most of them doesn't), in the process.
The direct medical cost of obesity and indirect economic loss to obesity has been estimated to be as high as $51.64 billion and $99.2 billion in 1995, respectively;[6] this rose to $61 billion and $117 billion in 2000.
That money could be spent on infrastructure,
important health care or education. Instead it's tax payers money that are spent helping what's a
self induced state of being. It's retarded. In fact, when you're eating all that crappy, processed industrialized food, you actually make a choice to condone how the food industry does things - and that's something I'll never do.
My daily food intake isn't as bad as you make it out to be either. I eat fruit, oatmeal, rice/almond milk products, salads, vegetables, protein shakes, whole grain rice/pasta, meat, nuts, fish, some soy, chicken/turkey, beans and lentils mostly. Eating and drinking rice/almond milk products is a personal choice, as I'm lactose intolerant. I wouldn't wish for my worst enemy to meet me after a glass of milk. I know you guys would think I'm a bit on the extreme side, but at least I've taken a stand on whether or not I want to want the best for my body, Ho Ping's family, and every little Audrey out there. We're so fucking lucky, that we should appreciate it, not go whine because
chicken is so god damn expensive. Every action got a consequence!
Fucking hell, this post got to be my longest yet.
I guess an unemployment check to most democrats is a job.
And for those that require sound with their visuals............. 
