White House Fingers PlayStation As Obesity Culprit

theodp writes "The winners of the childhood obesity infographic design contest sponsored by GOOD and First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative are in, and the overall winner calls out Sony's PlayStation as a major milestone on its timeline of childhood obesity (together with Coke, Pepsi, mall food courts, fructose and high sugar tariffs, TV, McDonald's, and other fast food). Somewhat ironically, the First Lady's other anti-childhood obesity efforts include a $60,000 video game contest."

Comments

Re:Huge Idiot

[erroneus]

I wish that were possible, but the fact is, we exist as a society and things one or a group of people do, can and does have affect on others. And, if we were able to let fat people be fat in peace, then I don't suppose you would mind cutting off medical insurance and government support of healthcare for obesity related disorders? Because if so, then I am 100% with you. It would save us all shit-tons of money in taxes and health insurance.

Re:Hmmph.

[Totenglocke]

So the natural outcome of achieving the dream of 100% automation of all work is that everybody starves?

All manual work may be automated, and that's a major reason for the decline of manufacturing in the US - because it's too expensive to pay people in a high-wage country to do menial labor like that. However, work in general (math, engineering, research, etc) can never be automated and replace humans.

It seems that the benefits of increased productivity have accrued to only a small segment of the population. Most of the people whose productivity has increased are stuck with stagnant wages.

Wrong. Economic data has shown that everyone's productivity has grown, though some more than others. Even the low-wage mechanics are much more productive now due to improved tools and computers for tracking everything and ordering parts. Yes, some people have a larger increase in productivity than others, but that's simply a matter of how technology can improve your work. You can't do nearly as much to increase the productivity of someone making sandwiches as you can an engineer designing a car.

It seems you have made it all the way into grad school without realizing that when the economy only serves a small portion of the population, things eventually get quite ugly.

The economy serves everybody, or are you so truly delusional that you think only a small portion of the population eats, works, and purchases goods and services?

But what would I know? I'm just an engineer that knows that systems (mechanical or economic) that harm the people they're supposed to serve are bad and must be revised until they work right.

Exactly - what would you know about Economics - you're an Engineer. I'm not arrogant enough to think I know how to build a car / building / bridge better than you, yet because you hear someone say "people who make money are evil" once, you're arrogant enough to think you know more about my field than I do.

That's actually been openly acknowledged by Economists many times for why governments follow horrible economic policies so often - because every idiot thinks that they know the best way to run the economy instead of listening to the experts in the field.

You've made no actual points in your "argument". All you've done is spread the typical FUD that "capitalism is evil because some people work harder / have better paying fields of specialization".