Can You Count to Two?

     You have probably heard that the mayor of New York
plans to prohibit the sale of sugar containing soft drinks larger
than 16 ounces.  This probably won't have much direct impact
on me.  I rarely drink soft drinks, maybe a half dozen a year.  I
don't recall ever drinking one larger than 16 ounces.

     Also, I have no intention of ever going to New York
again.  I can spot a dumb idea even as far off as New York.

     I read that as a follow up to the great idea The New York
City Board of Health is considering limiting the size of popcorn
containers and drinks containing milk.  This all reminds me of a
few years back when the British House of Lords debated
whether to require thinner bread slices to reduce obesity.  This is
just one more example of how the US lets Europe perfect dumb
ideas before imitating them.

     When I was in college it was illegal in Michigan to sell
milk in containers larger than one quart.  This had nothing to do
with fat.  It was to protect those who sold milk in quart bottles
from competition from those who might put milk in gallon jugs.

     A young man across the hall from me in the dorm had a
slight passion for chocolate milk.  Being limited to quart bottles
didn't stop him.  Being a clever college student he could count
to two.  He figured out that he could buy two quart bottles of
chocolate milk.   Not only that, he figured out how to do it
every evening.

     After the school year ended I didn't see this person again
for a few years.  When next I encountered him he was at least
twice the man he was before.  For people who can count to two,
or perhaps even three or four, limiting container sizes doesn't
prevent obesity.

     Something buried in the unconscious mind determines
how much a person eats and weighs.  This is why 98 percent or
so of people who lose weight gain it back.

     If a mere shrinking of containers or servings would
reduce food intake everyone could quickly and easily lose weight
and keep it off.  People spend huge amounts of money trying to
find ways to trick their unconscious minds into letting them lose
weight and keep it lost.  In the long run it almost never works.

     How much ignorance and arrogance must a politician
have to believe some simple minded  prohibition will magically
change the operation of the unconscious mind?  Part of the
reason government is such a counter productive failure is that
simple minded ignoramuses, such as the mayor of New York
City, dominate government.

     I can confidently promise that if the mayor's plan is
implemented it will have no lasting impact on obesity in New
York, or any place else.  People will weigh less when and only
when they either run out of food, or convince their unconscious
minds to let them eat less.

     There is hope that government will solve the fat problem. 
If government continues to tax, borrow and spend as if there
were no tomorrow, eventually there will be no tomorrow for
most   people.  As the country runs out of food, obesity will
cease to be a problem.

     Some may see a down side to this solution.  This does
nothing to distinguish it from other government problem solving. 
Invariably government "solutions" create worse problems down
the road a piece.  If you doubt that, stay tuned for the major
recession government has already made inevitable with its ham
handed attempts to force a recovery from the last recession.

aldmccallum@gmail.com

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Copyright 2012
Albert D. McCallum
18440 29-1/2 Mile Road
Springport, Michigan 49284