Are the poor fat?

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  • It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm
  • rachrach7595
    rachrach7595 Posts: 151 Member
    Its certainly cheaper to buy cheaper, fattier cuts of meat. You tend to gravitate toward the cheaper loaves of bread, usually white sliced for $1 at the supermarket... not wholegrain which is $3. I live in Australia and produce is ridiculously expensive. If you have access to a local market (not a "farmers market... " your a bit better off, also I noticed around Asian centered communities the food is cheaper... but if you are relying on Woolworths or Coles for your every day and you are trying to survive of minimum wage its not easy. I paid $10 a kg for tomatoes not a week ago at Woolworths and they are in season...$5 for an avocado. Which in contrast... you can also pay $5 for a large pizza at Dominos that will probably feed two kids or an adult :(
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    Fruits and vegetables are relatively inexpensive, but you will find you have to go to the store more often and this becomes a burden.

    [...]

    My personal choices force me to the store to get fruits and vegetables at least once a week if not more. I buy meat when its on sale, sometimes I stock my freezer if its a good enough buy. Where I live we also have a meat-market, a local butcher that has meat and other odds and ends prepared and a discount prices for buying at the source.

    I'd have to say personal choice is more like it. I chuck my fruit and veggies in the fridge or freezer and I ignore the ones in the fridge for weeks or months before they ever go bad. The ones in the freezer pretty much don't go bad. This does work for me because I cook most of my veggies before eating , though. To get a salad it'd usually be away from home, as fresh veggies sitting outside the fridge would typically go bad in my house for sure.
  • erinbartholomew5
    erinbartholomew5 Posts: 44 Member
    Ill weigh in. We live below the national poverty level. I can buy a economy pack (100) honeybuns for the same price as three d'anjou pears. I can buy 25 tacos for the price of one uncooked, unseasoned pork tenderloin.

    However- i live in a rural area. We saved and scrounged and went hungry to make an investment. We bought chickens and heirloom seeds. Now, i get 38 eggs a day (at $0.02/per egg) and up to 400lbs of produce a season (ex. Zuchinni ends up being under $0.01). It was a $300 investment and takes about 10 hours out of my day. We plan on hatching eggs to raise meat birds (they'll end up about $0.03/lb) and are going to invest in milk goats or a dairy cow.

    $300 wouldnt have bought my family a months worth of healthy food in a store.

    Eta- we ended up saving enough for the gun im holding in my pic-a hunting rifle. Another investment to bag meat for the cost of a bullet :)
    Now if everybody would be this productive, nobody would accuse the poor of being lazy or fat:)
  • shano25
    shano25 Posts: 233 Member
    I think everyone has their own individual reasons for why they are overweight and for a few people it may be reasons because they are poor (they live in an area where they don't have access to good quality foods or fresh foods are expensive) but for most people it's about the choices they make as to what food they put in their mouths.

    We live around the poverty line and we are all thin. We eat fresh fruits and vegetables, shop at the farmer's market, and include many organic foods in our diets. We have family members with more money than us who are overweight, and family members with less money than us who are overweight.

    We make the decision to eat healthy and be active, the others don't. We may spend less on food and buy less food but the quality of our food is better. We don't eat for the sake of eating, we eat for nutritional value, we don't overeat. The same can't be said for our family members.
  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
    Ill weigh in. We live below the national poverty level. I can buy a economy pack (100) honeybuns for the same price as three d'anjou pears. I can buy 25 tacos for the price of one uncooked, unseasoned pork tenderloin.

    However- i live in a rural area. We saved and scrounged and went hungry to make an investment. We bought chickens and heirloom seeds. Now, i get 38 eggs a day (at $0.02/per egg) and up to 400lbs of produce a season (ex. Zuchinni ends up being under $0.01). It was a $300 investment and takes about 10 hours out of my day. We plan on hatching eggs to raise meat birds (they'll end up about $0.03/lb) and are going to invest in milk goats or a dairy cow.

    $300 wouldnt have bought my family a months worth of healthy food in a store.

    Eta- we ended up saving enough for the gun im holding in my pic-a hunting rifle. Another investment to bag meat for the cost of a bullet :)
    Now if everybody would be this productive, nobody would accuse the poor of being lazy or fat:)
    Folks in more urban areas often do not have the option of being 'this productive;' most apartment-dwellers in the USA, for example, don't have the choice to own livestock or grow crops, while Child and Family Services may (not 'will' but 'may') be notified if a teacher learns that a family has made a decision to 'go hungry to make an investment.'
  • ggilbert95
    ggilbert95 Posts: 33 Member
    People get fat cause they overeat. Being poor isn't an excuse to eat a lot of food.

    I agree!!!
  • Carnivor0us
    Carnivor0us Posts: 1,752 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    You clearly live in an area with public transportation.

    Cars do not make people obese. I'm not about to walk the 16 mile drive to work, a journey that would take 40 minutes in a car. My time is more valuable than wasting most of my day walking to my destination. If I had access to public transportation, then that would be a different story.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    You clearly live in an area with public transportation.

    Cars do not make people obese. I'm not about to walk the 16 mile drive to work, a journey that would take 40 minutes in a car. My time is more valuable than wasting most of my day walking to my destination. If I had access to public transportation, then that would be a different story.
    Without the car we wouldn't have drive thru's and with out drive thru's people would be as fat. so I'm going with cars add to obesity, plus glove boxes hold a lot of food.
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    You clearly live in an area with public transportation.

    Cars do not make people obese. I'm not about to walk the 16 mile drive to work, a journey that would take 40 minutes in a car. My time is more valuable than wasting most of my day walking to my destination. If I had access to public transportation, then that would be a different story.
    Without the car we wouldn't have drive thru's and with out drive thru's people would be as fat. so I'm going with cars add to obesity, plus glove boxes hold a lot of food.

    Cars have steering wheels that turn the opposite way of the drive thru. And drivers with brains who can make choices not to go into the drive through. Cars are tools, like spoons. If cars are part of the obesity problem, then perhaps spoons are too.
  • I'm poor and I manage to eat healthy, that's bull****!
  • OllyReeves
    OllyReeves Posts: 579 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    Well obviously it's the people that HAVE cars that can't live without them. The people that DON'T have cars obviously DO live without them. Yeah I think you're right. Having a car makes you fat.....what ridiculous logic.

    Having a car means that I can have a job and pay my bills. End of.
  • Rozzii_
    Rozzii_ Posts: 16 Member
    I'm a UK student and my housemates all budget together to get their weekly shopping to save money, but it's always junk food, and cheap food. In order to eat healthy I've had to separate myself from this and it costs me a fortune. I constantly struggle with student funding to make ends meet (and I also work part time). I've tried to persuade better eating, but I think they would rather spend less money each week.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    Well obviously it's the people that HAVE cars that can't live without them. The people that DON'T have cars obviously DO live without them. Yeah I think you're right. Having a car makes you fat.....what ridiculous logic.

    Having a car means that I can have a job and pay my bills. End of.
    There are large areas in the US where public transportation is not available and many of them are rural, so your neighbor may be 10 miles up the road and there might not even be another house in between, much less a place of employment.

    I lived in a small town in GA that really didn't have a major employer -- most residents either owned their own businesses in town, were retired, independently wealthy or worked in one of the nearby towns, which were at least 45 minutes drives away on I-95. There were no buses. There were no subways or the equivalent. You walked, paid an arm and a leg to a questionable cab company or you had to own a vehicle.

    It's very easy to live in a place with good public transportation or things like grocery stores within walking distance and not own a car. Try doing that somewhere where it takes half a day just to walk to your neighbor's house.

    Even here, where we have a bus system, it isn't so easy. My fiance works at the airport, which is about 15 miles from our house and buses don't go there or anywhere near it. I could take a bus or walk to my job, easy. He can't. At least one of us has to have a vehicle so he can get to work.

    I grew up in an area that was similar -- there was publc transportation, but it didn't go everywhere. We lived in the country, surrounded mostly by farms. The nearest grocery store was 10-15 miles away. We didn't have sidewalks and we got a lot of snow and ice on a huge hill. A small snow storm could shut the town down for a week because plows couldn't get up the hills.

    That said, I will admit that getting my driver's license probably wasn't the best thing for my waistline.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    You clearly live in an area with public transportation.

    Cars do not make people obese. I'm not about to walk the 16 mile drive to work, a journey that would take 40 minutes in a car. My time is more valuable than wasting most of my day walking to my destination. If I had access to public transportation, then that would be a different story.
    Without the car we wouldn't have drive thru's and with out drive thru's people would be as fat. so I'm going with cars add to obesity, plus glove boxes hold a lot of food.

    Cars have steering wheels that turn the opposite way of the drive thru. And drivers with brains who can make choices not to go into the drive through. Cars are tools, like spoons. If cars are part of the obesity problem, then perhaps spoons are too.
    Spoons definitely, but use a tsp they're smaller and you'll gain weight slower. Oh, and don't leave spoons in the glove box, it's just temptation.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    Without the car we wouldn't have drive thru's and with out drive thru's people would be as fat. so I'm going with cars add to obesity, plus glove boxes hold a lot of food.

    Because you can't walk into the fast food restaurant and order?
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    Well obviously it's the people that HAVE cars that can't live without them. The people that DON'T have cars obviously DO live without them. Yeah I think you're right. Having a car makes you fat.....what ridiculous logic.

    Having a car means that I can have a job and pay my bills. End of.
    There are large areas in the US where public transportation is not available and many of them are rural, so your neighbor may be 10 miles up the road and there might not even be another house in between, much less a place of employment.

    I lived in a small town in GA that really didn't have a major employer -- most residents either owned their own businesses in town, were retired, independently wealthy or worked in one of the nearby towns, which were at least 45 minutes drives away on I-95. There were no buses. There were no subways or the equivalent. You walked, paid an arm and a leg to a questionable cab company or you had to own a vehicle.

    It's very easy to live in a place with good public transportation or things like grocery stores within walking distance and not own a car. Try doing that somewhere where it takes half a day just to walk to your neighbor's house.

    Even here, where we have a bus system, it isn't so easy. My fiance works at the airport, which is about 15 miles from our house and buses don't go there or anywhere near it. I could take a bus or walk to my job, easy. He can't. At least one of us has to have a vehicle so he can get to work.

    I grew up in an area that was similar -- there was publc transportation, but it didn't go everywhere. We lived in the country, surrounded mostly by farms. The nearest grocery store was 10-15 miles away. We didn't have sidewalks and we got a lot of snow and ice on a huge hill. A small snow storm could shut the town down for a week because plows couldn't get up the hills.

    That said, I will admit that getting my driver's license probably wasn't the best thing for my waistline.

    I will say that when I was a kid and lived on a farm, we all worked hard when we were home after school and fitness wasn't something that had to be taught to us. When we weren't working hard milking, feeding, haying or cleaning, we were running around playing. We had to be found after dark to come in and clean up to eat and go to bed. I don't think we were ever in the house except to eat.
    When I got older and we lived in town, there was never a question of getting a ride to school, even in winter, even though we lived a couple of miles away. I walked to and from . I really was one of those parents who could tell my kids I walked to school in the blizzards through the mountains of snow......
  • somefitsomefat
    somefitsomefat Posts: 445 Member


    It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    Well obviously it's the people that HAVE cars that can't live without them. The people that DON'T have cars obviously DO live without them. Yeah I think you're right. Having a car makes you fat.....what ridiculous logic.

    Having a car means that I can have a job and pay my bills. End of.
    There are large areas in the US where public transportation is not available and many of them are rural, so your neighbor may be 10 miles up the road and there might not even be another house in between, much less a place of employment.

    I lived in a small town in GA that really didn't have a major employer -- most residents either owned their own businesses in town, were retired, independently wealthy or worked in one of the nearby towns, which were at least 45 minutes drives away on I-95. There were no buses. There were no subways or the equivalent. You walked, paid an arm and a leg to a questionable cab company or you had to own a vehicle.

    It's very easy to live in a place with good public transportation or things like grocery stores within walking distance and not own a car. Try doing that somewhere where it takes half a day just to walk to your neighbor's house.

    Even here, where we have a bus system, it isn't so easy. My fiance works at the airport, which is about 15 miles from our house and buses don't go there or anywhere near it. I could take a bus or walk to my job, easy. He can't. At least one of us has to have a vehicle so he can get to work.

    I grew up in an area that was similar -- there was publc transportation, but it didn't go everywhere. We lived in the country, surrounded mostly by farms. The nearest grocery store was 10-15 miles away. We didn't have sidewalks and we got a lot of snow and ice on a huge hill. A small snow storm could shut the town down for a week because plows couldn't get up the hills.

    That said, I will admit that getting my driver's license probably wasn't the best thing for my waistline.

    I will say that when I was a kid and lived on a farm, we all worked hard when we were home after school and fitness wasn't something that had to be taught to us. When we weren't working hard milking, feeding, haying or cleaning, we were running around playing. We had to be found after dark to come in and clean up to eat and go to bed. I don't think we were ever in the house except to eat.
    When I got older and we lived in town, there was never a question of getting a ride to school, even in winter, even though we lived a couple of miles away. I walked to and from . I really was one of those parents who could tell my kids I walked to school in the blizzards through the mountains of snow......

    Uphill both ways?
  • Its certainly cheaper to buy cheaper, fattier cuts of meat. You tend to gravitate toward the cheaper loaves of bread, usually white sliced for $1 at the supermarket... not wholegrain which is $3. I live in Australia and produce is ridiculously expensive. If you have access to a local market (not a "farmers market... " your a bit better off, also I noticed around Asian centered communities the food is cheaper... but if you are relying on Woolworths or Coles for your every day and you are trying to survive of minimum wage its not easy. I paid $10 a kg for tomatoes not a week ago at Woolworths and they are in season...$5 for an avocado. Which in contrast... you can also pay $5 for a large pizza at Dominos that will probably feed two kids or an adult :(

    Where do you live? The cheaper loaves also include wholemeal bread for $1.50 and I have never heard of such prices for avocados or tomatoes. Grapes were $1.70 a kilo and lettuces were $1.99 at my Coles this week. A big bag of carrots costs about a dollar. If you buy fruit and veg in season, it's very affordable. For your $5 pizza you could make a stew/soup of beans and veges or a meat loaf with veges or salad or spag bol. Coles even put out a free magazine on cooking on a budget and many of their ideas come in at a couple of dollars a serve.

    I think people make excuses because they couldn't be bothered making the effort to cook, or perhaps don't know how to cook.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    I will say that when I was a kid and lived on a farm, we all worked hard when we were home after school and fitness wasn't something that had to be taught to us. When we weren't working hard milking, feeding, haying or cleaning, we were running around playing. We had to be found after dark to come in and clean up to eat and go to bed. I don't think we were ever in the house except to eat.
    When I got older and we lived in town, there was never a question of getting a ride to school, even in winter, even though we lived a couple of miles away. I walked to and from . I really was one of those parents who could tell my kids I walked to school in the blizzards through the mountains of snow......

    Until I was 10, we lived in town. School was probably two miles away and I always walked. Evern in kindergarten and first grade, my mom would walk me to school. After that, I walked by myself (and didn't get kidnapped -- imagine that!). And we were outside playing all the time, even in the dead of winter. When the streetlights came on, we went in. But that was it. Climbed trees, played tag and hide and seek, rode bikes, rollerskated, walked to nearby playgrounds and played ...

    When we moved to the country, I had to take a bus to school and I was a bit older, but the few kids nearby and I still preferred to be outside as much as possible.

    Being an adult sucks. I want to play outside all day!
  • I agree that the poorer the class the more generally overweight people are collectively. I actually have a theory concerning this.

    Through most of history people (women especially) were considered more attractive a little overweight. Being robust was a prefered body type because it meant that you had enough to eat and would be more likely to successfully procreate. Well the richer classes had access to more proteins, starches, fats,and sugars leading to the richer classes having the preferred robust bodies. While the poorer classes had mostly produce, leading to the poor being thinner. Today many junkier foods are cheaper than healthy foods leading to a reverse in preferred body types. If you think about it, a person who can afford health food (by societies standards, not that there isn't relatively inexpensive healthy foods to eat) is probably better off financially and because they can afford to have the preferred body they would be more likely to successfully procreate. So really its money and status that is scientifically attractive not bodies because our bodies reflect our well being. (leaving personal taste out of it; this theory this is strictly on a generalized scale and only uses science and history)
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,222 Member
    Without the car we wouldn't have drive thru's and with out drive thru's people would be as fat. so I'm going with cars add to obesity, plus glove boxes hold a lot of food.

    Because you can't walk into the fast food restaurant and order?
    Fast food restaurants with drive thru's get 2 extra points in favor of the obesity epidemic and conversely without, 2 points are deducted, it's only fair.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
    interesting debate - cars and spoons cause obesity.

    I think we're missing the obvious - Motorbikes cause obesity!

    two reasons - 1) They whip through traffic and get you to the restaurant quicker. 2) At least in cars you get stuck in traffic and have to sit there tapping your foot as you wait (and as we all know foot tapping is great way to burn calories).


  • It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm
    Perhaps I should just walk the 88 km return journal to my work. It would take me almost as long catching public transportation and changing over several times to reach my destination.

    If I leave at 3am and walk at a brisk pace, I might make it to work by 9am and then back home at 11pm. You're right, I should do just fine without a car. Hmmmm
  • shano25
    shano25 Posts: 233 Member
    It's again about the choices you make concerning external factors, not the external factors themselves.

    I live in a highly walkable, low-income neighbourhood. We chose this so we could own one car, my husband takes it to work because he works outside the city, and I walk or take the bus. Every day I walk one child to the bus stop and one child to school as well as picking them up. I walk to the library, the grocery store, the mall, the doctor, and to friend's houses. In my neighbourhood the furthest you have to walk to anything is 10 minutes.

    And yet, I know people who pay other people to walk their children to school, who drive to the store that is literally across the street, who take the elevator to go up or down a few floors. Add this to poor food choices, and these are the people who are complaining that they are overweight and asking me how I manage to stay so thin.

    We all have the same amount of money, the same resources, but we make different choices.
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
    interesting debate - cars and spoons cause obesity.

    I think we're missing the obvious - Motorbikes cause obesity!

    two reasons - 1) They whip through traffic and get you to the restaurant quicker. 2) At least in cars you get stuck in traffic and have to sit there tapping your foot as you wait (and as we all know foot tapping is great way to burn calories).

    No way! It's totally water skis that cause obesity! Just because! :smokin:


  • It's a little difficult to think of a car as a luxury when you live in a part of the country where the temperature are below freezing for more than half of the year, and if you work more than a couple of miles away from your home and don't have public transportation available to you you will be risking your life if you try to walk to work.

    I have lived in Canada for 54 of my nearly 61 years and have never owned a car nor have I needed to. During all this time I have heard thousands of people complain how impossible it is to live without a car. I have also noticed that it is only the people who HAVE cars who cannot live without them. People who don't have cars seem to be doing just fine. And, coincidentally, areas of the country with highest car ownership also have the highest rates of obesity. Hmmmm

    You clearly live in an area with public transportation.

    Cars do not make people obese. I'm not about to walk the 16 mile drive to work, a journey that would take 40 minutes in a car. My time is more valuable than wasting most of my day walking to my destination. If I had access to public transportation, then that would be a different story.
    Without the car we wouldn't have drive thru's and with out drive thru's people would be as fat. so I'm going with cars add to obesity, plus glove boxes hold a lot of food.

    Cars have steering wheels that turn the opposite way of the drive thru. And drivers with brains who can make choices not to go into the drive through. Cars are tools, like spoons. If cars are part of the obesity problem, then perhaps spoons are too.


    I see the self righteous "i dont own a car brigade" is alive and well - which is one thing which really gets my pet goat riled!

    you should move to San Francisco with an attitude like that where everything is so fresh and preppy! I dont know how many times people have said "you don't need a car in london" people who don't actually live here and have no concept that a 50square mile city cannot be covered by the tube.

    I live in central london which has some of the best transport in the world, AND have a car, and i'm not fat and most people i know are not fat either. Why do you need a car in London? Well come here and what you'll find is its a vast sprawling metropolis 50 miles squared in every direction, the ring road is 180 miles to drive around! not everything is on thenetwork or convenient to get to, so whilst public transport is good for some its not a silver bullet for everything - Walking home with water bottles is not only tiring, but it makes you look like a tramp :)

    High fructose corn syrup is a MASSIVE indicator of obesity - which is stuffed into almost everything in the states - its a largely banned substance in many countries and because the EU does NOT subsidies corn production, sugar is actually the cheaper option - whilst not good for you its nowhere near as bad as HFCS.

    As for the poor, well - in america its VERY expensive to eat properly for alot of people they have to choose between health insurance and eating (i'm sure i'll get flamed for saying this) but seriously have you been for a drive around the old part of vegas on a Wednesday Night? Are you telling me these people have a choice - what struck me was just how many homeless people there are and people on the verge of it and how willing people are to turn a blind eye, or just say its their own faults .. i don't see any compassion in that
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    As for the poor, well - in america its VERY expensive to eat properly for alot of people they have to choose between health insurance and eating (i'm sure i'll get flamed for saying this) but seriously have you been for a drive around the old part of vegas on a Wednesday Night? Are you telling me these people have a choice - what struck me was just how many homeless people there are and people on the verge of it and how willing people are to turn a blind eye, or just say its their own faults .. i don't see any compassion in that

    I think you should probably actually live here before making judgments like that.

    You start your post telling people they don't know about London because they don't live there and end it by telling Americans about their own country -- where you don't live. And, no, visiting it not the same as living here.

    We have compassion. But sometimes people do have to help themselves. Have you ever really gotten to know a true drug addict? You can hand them all the tools, but in the end, it's up to them. I know a man who got clean (with his family's help and support), started a business, was rolling in cash it was so successful, even bought himself a yacht.

    And now, only five years later, he's back in the gutter. Not because no one will help him but because he went back to the drugs and has burned all his bridges along the way.
  • As for the poor, well - in america its VERY expensive to eat properly for alot of people they have to choose between health insurance and eating (i'm sure i'll get flamed for saying this) but seriously have you been for a drive around the old part of vegas on a Wednesday Night? Are you telling me these people have a choice - what struck me was just how many homeless people there are and people on the verge of it and how willing people are to turn a blind eye, or just say its their own faults .. i don't see any compassion in that

    I think you should probably actually live here before making judgments like that.

    You start your post telling people they don't know about London because they don't live there and end it by telling Americans about their own country -- where you don't live. And, no, visiting it not the same as living here.

    We have compassion. But sometimes people do have to help themselves. Have you ever really gotten to know a true drug addict? You can hand them all the tools, but in the end, it's up to them. I know a man who got clean (with his family's help and support), started a business, was rolling in cash it was so successful, even bought himself a yacht.

    And now, only five years later, he's back in the gutter. Not because no one will help him but because he went back to the drugs and has burned all his bridges along the way.
    #

    Actually RML i did live in America so quite well qualified to comment, In vegas specifically and travelled many times to California and have many friends living there - many without health insurance ..

    I also had to go to the hospital and got my insurance partially refused on spurious grounds so had to pay 15,000 dollars for a few nights in and some fluids - so i'd say i'm quite well qualified to comment, give me the NHS over that any day of any week .. a society is judged on how it treats its weakest and well.. you know the rest

    The gov is happy to give millionaires a tax break whilst kicking the sick to the curb - and turfing people out of their foreclosed homes - the middle class is dissapearing and that includes being able to afford healthcare and good food at once you need to earn quite a decent wedge - and this is coming from someone who can afford both - i don't agree with it even if i'm not in that situation
  • As for the poor, well - in america its VERY expensive to eat properly for alot of people they have to choose between health insurance and eating (i'm sure i'll get flamed for saying this) but seriously have you been for a drive around the old part of vegas on a Wednesday Night? Are you telling me these people have a choice - what struck me was just how many homeless people there are and people on the verge of it and how willing people are to turn a blind eye, or just say its their own faults .. i don't see any compassion in that

    I think you should probably actually live here before making judgments like that.

    You start your post telling people they don't know about London because they don't live there and end it by telling Americans about their own country -- where you don't live. And, no, visiting it not the same as living here.

    We have compassion. But sometimes people do have to help themselves. Have you ever really gotten to know a true drug addict? You can hand them all the tools, but in the end, it's up to them. I know a man who got clean (with his family's help and support), started a business, was rolling in cash it was so successful, even bought himself a yacht.

    And now, only five years later, he's back in the gutter. Not because no one will help him but because he went back to the drugs and has burned all his bridges along the way.

    its sad to hear about your friend, but he is poor now, can he afford both healthcare and good nutricious food 3 times a day ? in my mind anyone who cant say yes to both is technically speaking "poor" - not everyone homeless is a drug addict, many middle class professionals, accountants, lawyers, hell even bankers have been kicked to the curb in the last few years and find themselves either homeless or in a very desperate situation -- its not nice and i pray it never happens to you or your family - but i don't think you can possibly understand until you get the rug pulled out from under you what it could possible be like