December 02, 2009

Compassion enough to starve people?

July 2008. New York decides that people are too stupid to make choices around diet and by banning Trans fatty acids they will stop obesity, or some such nonsense. Here you have government forcing people to do something, this is an elimination of freedom.

But Trans Fats are bad right? This is a good thing right? NYC looking out for the little guy, the Government as parents protecting their swaddling children from harm...

Lets take a food kitchen in NYC, one that distributes food to the hungry. There are LOTS of hungry right now, work is scarce, money is scarce. These food kitchens run off of donations, which are also down at the moment. So lets take a hypothetical example: A church decides to have a collection of food for a local shelter. They deliver the food, it is accepted with a Thank you.

Next, the shelter goes through the food and throws away anything with Trans fats. Because it is much better to go hungry or starve then risk obesity?

Oh, BTW this is NOT hypothetical! This is an example of government gone wild and hurting people.

When a small church comes to the Bowery Mission bearing fried chicken with trans fat, unwittingly breaking the law, they’re told “thank you.” Then workers quietly chuck the food, mission director Tom Bastile said.

“It’s always hard for us to do,” Basile said. “We know we have to do it.”



2 comments:

flyingvan said...

What if you designed a system where people that made good choices and remained fit enough to work were rewarded with money to buy things they wanted/ needed? And, people that didn't study, spent their days eating and watching TV, got nothing--even could end up on the street?, Then, the people who had money could make their own judgements about who was truly down and out, and who was just being lazy, and decided who to help with their money/time/resources?
You wouldn't really need the government for much.

Tina said...

It still bums me out the amount of food the school cafeteria throws out. If the apple was on the kid's tray & they don't even touch it - it still goes in the trash.

It was on "someone's plate" and is now unsuitable for starving people - WTH???