SWA #11

Point C: Human Nature

1. Higher pricing will force the choice (even more so) between healthy and junk foods.

2. Natural Selection

3. People can’t change what they don’t understand. Educate them.

The fact is that if you tax junk food people probably won’t stop buying it. You know what they will do? They’ll make sacrifices so that they can still afford it. Have you ever heard of somebody addicted to drugs stop using drugs because of the price? No, they make sacrifices in other aspects of their lives in order to facilitate their bad habits. I’ll give you a personal example, on my meal plan I’m able to get a sandwich, fruit, and a soft drink. Now I’ll tell you right now if the price on that soft drink went up and I had to choose between the fruit and the soft drink I’d like to say that I’d sacrifice the soft drink and drink water. But unfortunately I wouldn’t, and neither would America, if you make junk food more expensive Americans will just have less money, human nature won’t change, if we want something we will buy it no matter the cost.

            Now I don’t know if you agree with the idea of natural selection, but bear with me for a moment. A smart healthy person will most likely choose to eat healthy, live long and prosper in life. However, an inferior person will probably continue to eat poorly, get fat, and die. Who are we to stop this natural process, the smart survive, the dumb die. Depending on the type of person you are, you may see this as a bit heartless. I agree it’s not the most compassionate approach, but the fact remains it’s true.

            Now you’ll probably now be bringing up the same old argument, “They don’t know any better.” Which I find it hard to believe that anyone (other than perhaps a small child) couldn’t figure out that when they eat Twinkies and pizza for every meal of the day they get fatter then when they eat a chicken Caesar salad. But regardless I’ll bear with you. I agree that it is a necessity for people to know the facts about what they are eating, so if you’re the compassionate type and you want people to be healthy. You teach them.