Fat-Shaming & Debt-Shaming Undisciplined Yanks

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 2/20/2019 02:52:00 PM
Oink, oink: Can the archetypal American Porker-in-Chief be fat-shamed...and debt-shamed, too?
It was perhaps inevitable that the lard-assed American President Donald Trump would be medically classified as obese sooner or later. And so it was that we recently received news that he is clinically obese. In this case at least, Trump exudes the true American spirit in being really, really fat: nearly 40% of his countrymen have the same kind of bulbous, fat-laden Jabba-esque physique. In a previous post, I have made the obvious connection between American health indiscipline and fiscal indiscipline. That is, American super-indebtedness and super-obesity originate from the same place, which is a lack of self-regulation.

What is the rest of the world to do with exploding American deficits as health spending on these  fatsos shoots into orbit? The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008 US dollars; the medical cost for people who have obesity was $1,429 higher than those of normal weight [article here]. Ultimately, the rest of the world is paying the price for American obesity when it props up American indebtedness through the purchase of US Treasuries.

An interesting suggestion in the Atlantic argues that Americans have not been fat-shamed enough, resulting in a smug self-satisfaction about wallowing in pools of cellulite. Take, for instance, the social stigmatization of smoking that seems to have done wonders for forcing many folks to quite:
People don't hate being fat enough, basically, according to Hastings Center bioethicist Daniel Callahan. In an editorial published in the Hastings Center Report, he argues that nothing -- not diets, drugs, sugeries, nor appeals to our health -- is working, and goes on to make the case for fat-shaming people until they start eating more salad.

"An edgier strategy is needed," is his (earnest and entirely devoid of irony) way of putting it. The edgy strategy he came up with entails "social pressure combined with vigorous government action." Callahan likens it to the campaign to end smoking: The combination, in his experience, of being criticized, sent outside, and taxed for his "nasty habit" was the motivation he needed to quit. "The force of being shamed and beat upon socially," he writes, "was as persuasive for me to stop smoking as the threats to my health."
Trump is famously shameless; he's a lardbucket who's insulted any number of other people as fat despite his massive girth. However, it does make for an interesting idea: if Trump is so fat because he hasn't been fat-shamed enough, can the rest of the world debt-shame the United States? While the best solution from my perspective is to simply stop appeasing these debt-addled porkers altogether to instill discipline, maybe they haven't been shamed enough about their profligate ways that's causing this debt hemorrhage.

With a 40% obesity rate or so and $22 trillion in debt and counting, the rest of the world could surely do better in instilling discipline into these undisciplined Yanks. It is no mere coincidence that both American medical and fiscal are deteriorating rapidly with their poster boy, Donald Trump.