Last Thursday, the New York City Board of Health passed a rule banning the sale of large soft drinks in delis, movie theaters, and restaurants. The move was made in response to the growing girth of the citizens of that city. Establishments that feature self serve drink fountains would be prohibited from providing cups larger than 16 ounces. Other measures in the rule deal with the complicated issues such as chocolate milk and energy drinks. The rule was fought by businesses on the grounds that the banning of "super size" soda pop and other sugar laden beverages would cut into profits. A compromise was reached in which calories, ingredients, and nutritional content were juggled so as to allow some popular drinks like chocolate milk though the cracks.
It is remarkable that the city felt obliged to take up the task of involving itself in the diets of its citizens. Education has failed to curb the appetites of New Yorkers. Public service campaigns have failed. The omnipresence of sleek ads featuring thin, attractive models has failed to shame and entice New Yorkers into losing weight. Parents have failed to shape the dietary habits of their children in a suitably healthy manner. Progressives are at their wits end. The next best step is to intervene by limiting the options available to the consumer. Since people have demonstrated too great a willingness to eat what is put in front of them, steps have to be taken to limit what can be put in front of them. To that end, progressives are at work chiseling down the dietary options available to consumers.
The free market is based on supply and demand. People want super size meals, giant drinks, big, greasy cheeseburgers, and six inch thick pastrami sandwiches. That is why is why businesses sell them. People like sugar, salt, and fat in their food because it makes food taste good. The demand for a thing creates a supply. But the government has so far failed in curbing the demand for high calorie, fat laden food in amounts far greater than is needed to support life. They always will. Eating food you like in the amount you want is part of human nature. It has been a goal of humans since they first left the cave.
Most Americans are able to limit their appetites to what is, if not beneficial, is at least not harmful to their health. But a trip to the mall or the grocery store reveals that a great many haven't. What can be done about them? The growing mountain of data concerning the rate and economic costs of obesity is a gilded invitation for progressives to intervene. When data demonstrates that there is correlation between the activity of individuals, regardless of whether it occurs in public or in private, and the functioning of the community, the government has an obligation to step in. This is because for the progressive, whether liberal or conservative, there is no distinction between the public and the political. If it can be demonstrated that a particular activity or behavior has consequences extending beyond the individual, society has a duty to involve itself lest that activity or behavior disturb the public weal. Naturally, the particulars vary according to individual sentiment, but there is a common thread. The public must be protected from private heresy because private heresy, if left unchecked, can undermine society.
Ideally, the public can be educated into the idea. Thin is good. Obese is bad. These foods will keep you thin. Those foods will make you fat. Where education fails, the public must be prodded and enticed. Obese people are shamed and mocked. Thin people are celebrated and held up for emulation. Where prodding fails, coercion must be used. People must be forbidden to tread the path that leads to obesity. But they cannot be left to themselves to follow the path to fitness and health. People must be shepherded down that path and, to ease the task, the path must be narrowed and straightened and the exits closed.
When you go to a zoo you cannot help but notice the signs telling visitors not to feed the animals. This is because the animals all have regulated diets created to maintain their health. If people are free to toss in whatever food they please, the animals will either neglect the food the staff provides them in favor of the french fries and hot dogs people will throw, or they will eat everything. Either way, the animal's health will suffer. The animal is incapable of distinguishing between what is healthy for it to eat and what is not. It does not know how much it should eat. If you throw donuts and carrots in the monkey cage, the monkeys will eat the donuts. They will eat what tastes good. Progressives believe that people are little better. They believe that if you put foot long hot dogs in front of Americans, Americans will eat foot long hot dogs. That is why action is needed to restrict what can be put in front of them. Despite the frequent paeans to the rights and dignity of the individual, progressives do not believe that people can be trusted to conduct themselves appropriately on their own. They must be vigilantly watched, clearly guided, and constantly goaded lest they slip into barbarism and ignorance, or, in this case, obesity.
People are not animals. They can choose what they will eat and in what amount. If liberty is to mean anything you have to allow people to choose how they will conduct themselves. Just because people make poor decisions is no reason to restrict liberty. A progressive paradise would be a strange thing to behold. You would be free to marry whomever you wanted but you would not be free to eat whatever you wanted.
Don't let all the details and statistics fool you. It is really a simple plan. If the only thing Americans can eat is healthy food in modest amounts, the only thing they will eat is healthy food in modest amounts. For progressives, if people are unwilling or unable to make the right decision when confronted with multiple options, you have to narrow the list down to only those choices you approve of. They believe life should be reduced to a multiple choice test where all the wrong answers have been removed. Progressives have a plan for what America should be. One way or another, people will have to adhere to that plan.
