Ezra Klein weighs in on weight-reduction incentives, and I'm still laughing:
Im not interested enough in this point to dig up the link, but there are a couple of economists out there trying out a new weight loss strategy wherein you, the fatty, enter into a legally-enforceable contract that puts a certain amount of money in escrow. If you make your weight loss goal, you get your money back. If you fail, it goes to a charity. Two thoughts:
1) I really hate being treated like a rational economic actor. It's dehumanizing.
2) The incentives on this are backwards. You don't want people to be able to say, "well, I may not have lost the weight, but at least my money is going to a good cause." What you want to do is start the program by having them decide on a sum of money and weight goal, then sit them down with a political questionnaire that measure values and issue intensity. Once that's done, the benign economists choose a cause that is diametrically opposed to your values and in the area that you identified the most attachment to. So, were I to fail in my weight loss attempts, I'd be giving the Chamber of Commerce $500 for their issue outreach program, or something. Then, not only would I be losing money and remaining chunky, but my failure of will would also hurt America.
CalorieLab published a map of rates of obesity in the US by state, from data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Check it out:
Colorado is the leanest state (by 3 year average of BMI's), Mississippi is the state with the highest prevalence of obesity, and California stayed exactly the same, dropping a few points as a result (as most other states became fatter). So a question to you all: what do you make of this map?
Chris Bowers at OpenLeft makes an observation (not causation, just an observation) that the politically "red" leaning states are more obese than the politically "blue" leaning states. Interesting. Other thoughts?
What is health justice? How are health & human rights fiercely connected to the wellness of our neighborhoods? How do we reframe policy debates? How do we continue dreaming and building instead of just reacting & surviving? And how do we support each other in our healing?
Cure This is an online space for storytelling, discussion, reflection and building around healing justice. Create an account to write a diary or comment. Questions or thoughts: lotusfeet [at] hotmail [dot] com
News: CureThis was part of an exhibit in Chicago: "Visual resistance in feminist health movements, 1969-2009" [link]
