Responsibility and Freedom

The so-called obesity epidemic is a case of Americans consistently failing to act with discipline in terms of what they eat and how much they eat.  Politicians and other advocates see Americans getting fatter and apparently taking no responsibility to improve the situation.  It was less than four weeks ago that I warned in Obesity Epidemic and the Food Police (May 14) about where this particular aspect of lack of responsibility would lead.  “If we don’t fix it ourselves, others will step in with their mandates, programs and artificial incentives, excusing this outside interference as being in the interest of public health.”  On February 3 in Blame the Sugar, I said, “If we don't step up and take responsibility for our behavioral failures and begin to make some changes, well-intentioned people will call for government action and our freedoms will slowly erode.”

For anyone who didn’t believe me, we now have the case of Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, proposing to amend the city health code “to restrict sales of sugary soft drinks to no more than 16 ounces a cup in city restaurants, movie theaters, stadiums and arenas…” Further down in the same article it reminds us of the other food-related actions in New York City since 2003:  requiring restaurant chains to post calorie-counts on menus, banning trans-fats from restaurants and prepared foods and banning sugary beverages from vending machines in schools and city-owned buildings.  He also dropped whole milk from public school cafeterias.

This is what I mean by erosion of freedom.  Slowly and with the best of intentions the government reduces our choices, treating us like children.  Each step seems small and could easily go unnoticed as we continue our busy lives, but our complacency leads to more and more restrictions.  Meanwhile, nothing is really solved.