I feel that if people want to eat unhealthy, let them. It is only themselves they are going to hurt. The average person is educated enough to know what they are eating. What is really fucked up about all of this is that the U.S. government is thinking about trying to control what Americans eat by taxing foods and beverages that they deem "unhealthy." As if the American population is too stupid to understand the concept of unhealthy food. People do not eat unhealthy food because they don''t know it is unhealthy, they eat it because it tastes good.
Using the same logic, on a more sensible and moralistic subject, you may end up with:
I feel that if people want to kill out of reason, let them. -- We live in a consequent world. By doing wrong to yourself, you are indirectly causing others to cause wrong as well. By eating fast food, you are contributing to the ever-growing demand for fast food. Between many things, this means more animals will be treated badly and eventually killed, just because the demand is excessively grand --as is the waste.
The average person is educated enough to know...may very well be a wrong pretence of your own. How sure are you that people actually know what is in the food they eat? You may be aware that fast food is unhealthy, however, that does not necessarily mean you know
exactly what it is that you are eating, and what the exact consequences will be in your body.
Americans should indeed start taxing food according to their healthy value; "As if the American population is too stupid to understand the concept of unhealthy food." --For someone who is against generalisations, this is rather ironic, if I may. It sounds very much so eclectic to say people eat food because it tastes good. Fallacious. People eat fast food because they can illusively trick their body into feeling "full", they can get their food and eat in a minimal amount of time and pay a reasonable price for the whole meal. This is the demand society put us up with.
(...) they are fattening would be going against our economic philosophy. (...) The Government shouldn't be able to decide what we eat.
1. What is the American's Economic Philosophy? Without explanation or proof that you
do know what you are talking about, your argument stands invalid.
2. By taxing fast food and the likes, you won't be told what you can or can not eat. There is no direct power from the Government applied to such a thing, at all. If anything, the inclusion of taxes will have you change your habits and consume less of what you once did and compensate with different food, drinks and so on. To your own advantage, that would mean eating healthier food.
There is no such thing as an "Average American" The United States of America is made up of many different people, cultures, races, and intelligence levels.
Why is it that I have the feeling that you are just joking around?
There is such a thing as "Average American". As there is of "Average Portuguese", "Average British", and so on. Different cultures, races and intelligence levels are but conditions and variants of the average, which does not -at any point in time or stage in theoretical conceptualisation- annihilate the consignation of the average as a whole. Compare it to the notion of "Neutral", if you will. There is no such thing as linear neutrality, however the circumstances. It's an established notion to help de-establish what is unknown or unheard of to humanity.
Nate is not joking around with you. He is simply disagreeing with you.