Obesity means illness and sick days and that means lost productivity. If the obese can't respect society's need to be trim, they ought to be locked away. Sounds like a good get-tough campaign speech. Fortunately, to all of you who don't own 100 hours of Susan Powter videos, it also sounds ridiculous. Which, of course, it is.
Obesity is a bad choice, but it's a choice.
Unless George Orwell wasn't being satirical, government shouldn't be about keeping people from bad choices. Sure, obesity does has its social pricetag. If personal freedom has its indirect social expense, then we'll all carry the weight together. Right here in New York, courtesy of ol' Gov. Rockefeller, there are more than 22,000 people in jail for drug-related offenses. About half the people sent to prison for drug offenses, the Correctional Association adds, have never been arrested for a violent felony.