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August 9, 2005
At A Minimum, The Most Costly Food Cop Idea
Sometimes we get the feeling that there's a secret competition between food cops to one-up each other for the most absurd way to attack our food choices. We recently told you about an Illinois physician who argued in a Chicago Tribune op-ed that the government should "mandate that, effective immediately, all portions of food served in restaurants and fast-food places be cut by one-half to two-thirds." Now, to fight the flab, another academic has proposed a harebrained economic plan.
Sometimes we get the feeling that there's a secret competition between food cops to one-up each other for the most absurd way to attack our food choices. We recently told you about an Illinois physician who argued in a Chicago Tribune op-ed that the government should "mandate that, effective immediately, all portions of food served in restaurants and fast-food places be cut by one-half to two-thirds." Now, to fight the flab, another academic has proposed a harebrained economic plan.
Adding to the chorus of professors trying to argue away personal responsibility, the University of California Davis' J. Paul Leigh wrote in Sunday's Sacramento Bee that fast food is just too darn convenient and inexpensive. "The inflation-adjusted price of fast-food meals has decreased by more than half," he complained. Which brings him to what could possibly be the silliest notion ever devised to trim a dress size:
The solution for the obesity epidemic is to double the minimum wage, which would result in an 80 percent increase in fast-food prices. A large increase in prices would reduce fast-food consumption just like the increase in cigarette taxes reduced cigarette consumption.
For a side order of irony, consider the self-stated hobby of this fat fighter: Watching television.
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