hink of it all - of the life that is! Study your friends and foes!
Study the past! And answer this: "Are these times better than those?" The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride! No matter who fell it were better to fight as they did when the world was wide.
Obesity Alarm
"Earlier this year the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, an acknowledged leader in research into diabetes and obesity and their related complications, such as stroke and heart disease, estimated that 4 million Australians are now obese and another 5 million are sufficiently heavy to be classified as overweight and at risk of joining those classified as obese. It argued the inexorable rise of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease was an indication that this society is effectively gorging itself to death.The report, commissioned by Diabetes Australia, makes for disturbing reading for all Australians. The cost to the taxpayer of this obesity epidemic in the growing burden on the health system, lost productivity, welfare payments and carers' costs, has all but tripled to more than $58 billion a year, up from $21 billion in 2005. This massive jump reflects the increased incidence of weight-related diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
What is clear from this report, and others, is that as a society we are failing to tackle the expanding obesity problem, and if radical action is not taken soon, it will be to Australia's long-term health and financial cost, as weight-related premature deaths, disability and hospital admissions grow."
::View Article::
So, each Australian is paying more than $2,762 a year to maintain the unhealthy lifestyles of the overweight.
While the causes of obesity are sometimes psychological, related to deeply ingrained dispositions such as serious depression, and also physiological, generally speaking we need not maintain a culture that allows many people to go about their day comfortable in the knowledge that their poor and un-realistic lifestyles will automatically be supported by the hard work of society when things eventually hit the fan. A culture that always makes everyone pay for the obvious poor choices of individuals is skewed the wrong way.
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