Obese America

America faces a bleak and frightening future because many of its citizens are obese (the medical term for being too fat).
Some surveys even indicate that the majority of Americans could be obese within fifteen to twenty years. This is a potential nightmare because obesity leads to all sorts of health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, type two diabetes and asthma to name just a few.
This means that millions of Americans will get really sick because of obesity in the years ahead. This will put incredible pressure on a medical system already overburdened by rising costs, a shortage of doctors and nurses and tens of millions of uninsured people.
The obesity epidemic could cause the entire health care system to crash in the near future. Millions of people, many of them uninsured, poor and poorly educated will descend upon medical facilities demanding treatment. Many of them thoroughly brainwashed by TV will think the doctors have an instant answer and find they don’t have it. Don’t be surprised when some obese diabetes patient walks into the hospital and starts shooting all the doctors and nurses in sight because they couldn’t offer him an instant cure.
The problem will be made worse by the shortage of health workers, millions of Americans will need treatment and care. The people to provide it won’t be there from bed pan changers to doctors. The solution to this will be a staunchly American one we’ll simply raid other countries for their doctors. Places like Russia, India and Pakistan with lots of doctors will be hit as will the socialist paradises of Europe and Canada. Don’t be at all surprised if European social democracies take drastic steps to keep doctors from moving to the US in search of the big bucks in the years ahead. Closer to home more and more illegal immigrants will be allowed in to change the bedpans.
The social and economic effects of the obesity economic will be profound. The national obsession with diets and weight loss will continue and grow to ridiculous proportions. Diets and ads for them will be everywhere as will quackery and charlatanism. Every newspaper and magazine will be filled with ads for miracle weight loss products. Aging and increasingly obese celebrities will be everywhere hawking these scams.
Skyrocketing healthcare costs will lead to increased taxes and higher insurance premiums because of obesity. More and more Americans will find health insurance unaffordable and cries for national health insurance will increase. Politicians will undoubtedly comply with them and then scramble to contain costs. Expect to see other areas of the budget cut to the bone and taxes raised to pay for all the insulin and bypass operations. Higher taxes of course will mean decreased economic growth and more tax evasion so the underground economy will grow. We’ll have to answer the question: can our economy function and grow with an increasing proportion of our national treasure being spent on healthcare rather than production?
Obese people will be less able to take care of themselves increasing the burden on the physically fit. More and more firefighters and rescue workers will have to risk their lives helping obese people get away from fires and disasters.
Many of the obese people will be homebound and car dependent. With rising gas prices many of these people won’t be able to go anywhere or do anything so they’ll just around and watch TV or play videogames.
The obese will demand that our tax dollars be spent upon home care and vans to haul them to the grocery store and the all you can eat buffet. Already in my home town of Denver the transit district has been forced to cut basic bus service and spend the money on federally mandated vans for the disabled.
The obese will undoubtedly require more police protection too because they will be less able to defend themselves. The crime of the future maybe aggressive physically fit people simply walking into obese people’s homes and terrorizing them. The human vegetables sitting in front of their TVs will make easy targets for such crimes.
Adding to the enormous cost will be the retrofitting of our nation for the obese, bigger chairs and seats, bigger doors, etc. This will made worse by legions of civil rights attorneys who will sue any business that doesn’t retrofit for the obese under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The final outcome of the obesity epidemic will be a sharp increase in faith and religious devotion. When they discover that medicine’s ability to help them is limited the obese will turn to God and the churches. Especially when they find themselves helpless and facing death.
We’re going to see a massive interest in faith healing and miracles in the years ahead. Naturally this will lead to a floodtide of fraud and charlatanism. TV channels and churches will be filled with faith healers promising to heal diabetes as they pass the collection plate around. Sightings of the Virgin and the saints will become more common and the pilgrimage business will become a growth industry. Another strong possibility will be a massive revival of Christian Science or some new movement teaching denial of reality.
This is a bleak future indeed and a very sad one. It’s sad because we could have avoided it by using a little common sense and self control.