75% of Americans Too Fat or Dumb to Join Army

[Ian]

It's not McDonald's fault. Americans have become fat because they eat too much and don't exercise.

I can't believe I have to do this....but....Gawd...you are right...

...but, it's not just Americans. The Brits are only a few percentage points behind us, and western Europe is bulking up nicely too. Americans are surely fat, but the idea that the rest of the western world is slim is a myth.

Yup. The whole industrialized world is getting heavier. And the US isn't even leading the way; we're slightly behind Mexico.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technolo ... rld/22904/

Are we gonna let the Mexicans take that reputation away from us?! C'mon Merkins, let's all resolve to stuff ourselves at dinner tonight and show 'em we're still #1!

[Svartalf]

That every exercise pitting the French Foreign Legion against US Marines had the jarheads running off and crying like little grrls.

We'll wait for your proof.

The only reason the French Foreign Legion has any decent reputation at all is because it's made up of mostly non-French soldiers. I mean, after all, you know why there are trees along the Champs Elysee, right? So German soldiers will have shade over their head while they march in....

Wrong... that joke was initially made about trees along French roads, where it made sense.
The Champs avenue is so wide, and the trees so stunted (where there are any), that no soldier marching on it has had shade in many a decade (remember, it's the site of the July 14 parade)

[Coito ergo sum]

I'm sorry, but you can fed better with the same amount of money if you cook at home. This may require the older kids to do the lion's share of work, but that's called character development.

Who is going to teach them how if both parents are at work?

The parents, when they get home from work. Lots of parents both hold down jobs, and manage to raise healthy, well-educated children. Microwaves are pretty cool too - insert potato - press on - wait a while - check if edible - eat.... or, put spaghetti in water, boil, heat sauce. Combine. Eat.

Keep in mind that not everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps like you did Zilla. Why should poor people be expected to build character development any more than anyone else? We're talking about the average person.

They aren't expect to build character more than anyone else, nor are they required, as I see it, to do anything at all. It's their life. What they do, and how they feed themselves, like the way you or zilla feed yourselves, is nobody else's business. Is it? (child neglect aside, of course)

[maiforpeace]

How long till they peddle drugs just to get pizza?

If you are an undocumented worker, you may have to resort to illegal activity for the money to buy food.

Very true. But, it always comes back to the fact that almost none of them comes here involuntarily, aside from children. When they come here, they know what they are doing. I'm not opposed to helping them, mind you. I am opposed, however, to pretending that they are bunch of innocent dupes who wound up here through no fault of their own.

Here in CA, it's fair to say that most of the drug peddling that goes on is among gangs - either second generation Mexicans which makes them citizens, or kids brought over the border illegally with their parents as you describe above.

On that subject, what do you think of this?

[Coito ergo sum]

What's easier...having the time and where with all to drag bagfuls of groceries from the Walmart across town, cook the food from scratch, or stopping at the McDonalds a block away? Especially if you have to work two or three jobs to support your family?

What can they afford?

That's my point...the expensive crap food at the little markets found in inner cities and the crap food at MacDonalds.

I dispute that. The food at inner city markets is not more expensive, than suburban markets.

Otherwise, they need both the time and the transportation, which are both resources that require $$$ to get to better food resources. It's a trade off, and unfortunately they usually end up picking the former since it's the easiest and probably ends up costing as much as the other anyway.

Of course, I am specifically addressing the poor in cities. If my nephew and his family as an example of the poor in a rural area though, they also follow the same pattern.

What do you propose be done about it? Free food for everybody? Federal Chefs that canvass the inner cities making Arugula salads and Asiago cheese appetizers for everybody?

I mean, at some point, people need to figure out how to put food on the table.

And, judging by the 75% figure at the top of this thread, they're doing a pretty good job of it, quantity wise.

[maiforpeace]

I'm not making any proposal about what to do about it - I'm simply pointing out the reality of what it's like for a poor person to feed themselves, and the many reasons why they are overweight, vs the reasons why middle or upper class folks are.

It's just too simplistic to simply say "well, you can feed yourself better" "you can learn how to cook" or "you can get more exercise"

I'm assuming everyone here knows all these things, so, why are you and/or yours overweight?

[Gawd]

I'm not making any proposal about what to do about it - I'm simply pointing out the reality of what it's like for a poor person to feed themselves, and the many reasons why they are overweight, vs the reasons why middle or upper class folks are.

It's just too simplistic to simply say "well, you can feed yourself better" "you can learn how to cook" or "you can get more exercise"

I'm assuming everyone here knows all these things, so, why are you and/or yours overweight?

Actually, a lot of people don't know diddly squat about nutrition and exercise. This ties into the dumb American part of the article. Basic things like what a calorie is or how many calories you actually need are as foreign to many people as running for the fat recruits. Even then, many people don't know what real exertion in exercise is. They think golf is exercise.

[Warren Dew]

I'm sorry, but you can fed better with the same amount of money if you cook at home. This may require the older kids to do the lion's share of work, but that's called character development.

Who is going to teach them how if both parents are at work?

Keep in mind that not everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps like you did Zilla. Why should poor people be expected to build character development any more than anyone else? We're talking about the average person.

Who says it doesn't apply to nonpoor people too? Both parents work in our family, and I make the time to cook meals from scratch. No way we could afford McDonald's twice a day every day.

[Warren Dew]

Still an interesting article and it got linked from a new Wired article about how the US. Army is lowering their intelligence and fitness standards to accommodate the dumber, fatter American of today. The new wired article says that you no longer run in basic training because most of the potential recruits are too fat and out of shape to do it. Instead, running will now be replaced by basic stretching and whacking each other with sticks. This is no joke.

So post a link to the new article instead of to the old news.

[Coito ergo sum]

I'm not making any proposal about what to do about it - I'm simply pointing out the reality of what it's like for a poor person to feed themselves, and the many reasons why they are overweight, vs the reasons why middle or upper class folks are.

It's just too simplistic to simply say "well, you can feed yourself better" "you can learn how to cook" or "you can get more exercise"

I'm assuming everyone here knows all these things, so, why are you and/or yours overweight?

I grew up poor - lower middle class. I know what it's like. They're not incompetent.

They're overweight because they eat too much. That's why almost everyone is overweight, excepting those with glandular and other medical issues.

I'm slightly overweight because I eat too much, if you must know. There is no other way, really, to gain fat.

Poverty doesn't cause obesity. Who was it that said, "I want to live where the poor people are fat."?

[Gawd]

Still an interesting article and it got linked from a new Wired article about how the US. Army is lowering their intelligence and fitness standards to accommodate the dumber, fatter American of today. The new wired article says that you no longer run in basic training because most of the potential recruits are too fat and out of shape to do it. Instead, running will now be replaced by basic stretching and whacking each other with sticks. This is no joke.

So post a link to the new article instead of to the old news.

I'm too lazy.

[PsychoSerenity]

Poverty doesn't cause obesity.

No, you're right, it's not a simple as that. But there is a strong correlation between the two and a whole load of other social issues mixed in. What is clear is that the problem is not going to go away by simplifying it to "They're overweight because they eat too much".

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Pound of hamburger, 93% lean, is $4.08 here. That's four quarter pounders, or a dollar a burger for the meat. Add $0.50 for the rest, bread, lettuce, tomato if they're lucky, and that's $1.50 for a meal for a kid.

[Gawd]

Poverty doesn't cause obesity.

No, you're right, it's not a simple as that. But there is a strong correlation between the two and a whole load of other social issues mixed in. What is clear is that the problem is not going to go away by simplifying it to "They're overweight because they eat too much".

Correlation does not imply causation. I think you have it the other way around. Being fat causes you to be poor because you can't do anything well.

And yes it is just a simple case of Americans eating way too much and not being active at all. Look at the nutritional studies that show Americans are consuming way more Calories than someone 60 years ago. And don't you think the fact that most Americans sit on their fat asses all day at work and then sit on their fat asses all the way home and then sit on their fat asses till bed has something to do with it? Even American farmers are fat with many having beer bellies because they perch their fat asses on their tractor that do all the work.

[Svartalf]

Actually, here, the causation is indirect, but it's there.
Poverty implies resorting to the cheaper foodstuffs available, and nowadays, that means fat and sugar heavy junk food.
Add to it the modern sedentary lifestyle (posssibly worsened by joblessness turning you into a couch potato) ... and that makes for a fair amount of causation.

This is not to say there's an absolut derivation, "you're poor, ergo, you are fat", especially as it is dependent on locale (in areas were ANY food is scarce or expensive, the poor are still thin and/or malnourished), but in the first world, yes, being poor makes you more likely to be fat...