Calories on Menus

And that's exactly why I am against nationalized healthcare in principle.

 

What about parents that feed their kids too much greasy food?

 

Exactly right. Where does the nanny state stop? I think the first question the government should ask itself before beginning any legislation is, "Is this any of our business?"

 

Well you said yourself, that an obese person is harming themselves. Would encouraging your children to be obese, a harmful state, not be bad?

 

Sure it's bad, but it's not the business of the government to make that judgment.

 

I suppose smoking is still legal. But providing cigarettes to a minor is illegal, nay? I can imagine a state where one must be 18 to eat "greasy/salty food"

 

I don't want to imagine a state where the government assumes the role of the parent. If parents make poor choices for their kids, that's their right to do so.

 

There has to be a clear line. IMO, that line is only imminent death and physical abuse. Christian Scientists aren't murderers; they're people of faith. They love their kids, too.

It would be my hope that the community or their neighbors step in far before the government does. We've lost the idea that the informal social structures in a community help support it. Churches, fraternal organizations, etc. used to provide the majority of the help people needed. Now, it's all about the government. IMO, we're a poorer nation for it.

 

Hence, the "imminent death" part of my post.

 

I think this great news. You can't even find nutritional information at half of the fast foods places I go to. Requiring the restaurants to post the information lets me make informed decisions on the products I'm buying.

 

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/30/group-tells-ronald-mcdonald-to-take-a-hike/?hpt=T2

 

I want a law that says everybody in Congress has to make public their weight, BMI, blood pressure, HDL levels, blood sugar, pulse rate, etc. They should also have to inform us of the prescription medines they take, how many cocktails they drink, whether or not they smoke, and what they have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Without this information, how can we know if our representative form of government is actually "healthy" or not?

 

I think the government should also force car manufacturers to post information about the rubber in their tires--what country it came from, how many acres of forest had to be cleared to produce it, how many indigenous peoples were removed from their homelands because of it, how much wildlife was destroyed . . .

How else can I make an "informed" decision when I purchase my car?

 

along the lines of this silly idea, I had thought a good website would be listing how local are various products/restaurants. That way you can find out which companies you can support because they are helping our local economy. Seems patriotic to me.

 

Good idea. They could put it online and people could look it up if it mattered to them. I suppose it could all be printed on the tires, but then you'd have to bend down to read it...and when you bend over, that's when the government...

 

That's an excellent idea. Personally I ride my bike everywhere. If people had more data at their disposal to see what kind of effect they were making when they purchase a new car they might be more inclined to buy a used car, a bike, or even a bus pass instead. It's a win for everyone involved.