Good point. That is certainly one aspect of it, but there are other factors as well. You may be interested in this link as well.

One thing I wanted to add is that as far as the issue of obesity in America goes, some would argue that those who are economically disadvantaged are “forced” to eat unhealthy food that makes them fat.

Sure, there is an element of choice, but as many of us know fast food and other “junk foods” are markedly cheaper than healthy alternatives - when those opportunities are even available in poorer neighborhoods. In many cases, they are not.

To me, being able to afford deep-fried, sugary, salty foods is not a sign of prosperity; rather I see it as a matter of economic necessity coupled with a lack of education on what constitutes a healthy diet.

There are ton of issues tied up in this matter and it would be interesting to investigate the topic further.

Since I’ve never lived with either, I cannot confirm or deny your claim that living under starvation is worse than living under obesity.

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In this country, I am considered obese at 220lbs. Although I have never acutely starved, I have had hunger pains in my life, and I can tell you it sucks. I really don’t think you are being genuine when you claim that you are unsure what would be worse. I suppose being grossly obese would not be fun, however under commonly accepted definitions of obese, I would be considered that and for me life does not suck. In fact life is pretty damn good. I suspect that most obese people in America would offer similar sentiments as I.

you have yet to rebut my claim that living under starvation is worse than living under obesity

.

Since I’ve never lived with either, I cannot confirm or deny your claim that living under starvation is worse than living under obesity.

In this country, I am considered obese at 220lbs. Although I have never acutely starved, I have had hunger pains in my life, and I can tell you it sucks. I really don’t think you are being genuine when you claim that you are unsure what would be worse. I suppose being grossly obese would not be fun, however under commonly accepted definitions of obese, I would be considered that and for me life does not suck. In fact life is pretty damn good. I suspect that most obese people in America would offer similar sentiments as I.

No I don’t - not any more than I think more economic opportunity is better than less economic opportunity, some things are so clearly better that it falls under common sense, not liberal paternalism. I think that living under obesity vs. living under starvation is also one of those things.

Another thing to keep in mind when discussing obesity vs. starvation in the context of liberal paternalism is that obese societies include the option to live under starvation - after all, if you prefer starvation you can always not eat. However, societies that are affected with high levels of starvation have starvation forced on the citizens (usually because of some socialist type government program to ‘help the poor’, but I digress), not giving them an option. So to speak of liberal paternalism, in a context of choice, makes no sense to me.

So to clarify, let me reiterate my point: while obesity certainly has its problems, I believe it to be a drastic improvement over starvation - with starvation being the way of the world for most of our history.

Steven Mansour,

Of course you haven’t. You need to talk to more people that have (like some Mexican immigrants), and you will see that the two are radically different. But if you consider this a ‘debatable point’ then I am perfectly fine to let others reading this make up their own mind.

fernando,

I’m hearing you amigo, I couldn’t agree more.

The evidence is clear, it cannot be denied, people out there would swim through fire to get here, because of the very system that affords any one to make it.

Add to that, that the ageing population will out number
those working and will not peak till the year 2030 means that for the fore seeable future there will be less unemployment and greater opportunities for any group to fill those jobs.

This aint called the Land of Plenty for nothing “You all”.

you have yet to rebut my claim that living under starvation is worse than living under obesity

.

Since I’ve never lived with either, I cannot confirm or deny your claim that living under starvation is worse than living under obesity.

But since I don’t know much about you (asides from Oso telling me that you’re a cool dude), I’ll assume that you’ve personally lived both extreme starvation and acute obesity, to be able to claim that one is better than the other.

You never answered my question:

Don’t you think that D’Souza’s claim to know what makes “a better life to the ordinary guy” smacks of liberal paternalism?

No matter how much you try to get away from the issue, you have yet to rebut my claim that living under starvation is worse than living under obesity.