The author laments about how America is a society that prefers to break things and then fix them later, the opposite of which should be to prevent things from breaking in the first place.
Ironic, considering that his solution to obesity is to tax unhealthy foods, which sounds very much like a bandaid solution to fix something that's already broken.
Why not suggest things to actually prevent obesity in the first place? Like fitness awareness campaigns bought to schools, health food awareness campaigns in corporate settings and so on, just to toss a few ideas up.
Why couldn't taxing unhealthy foods be preventative? It's not as though only obese people are price sensitive. Nicholas Kristof at least thinks taxing can be very effective:
Let’s break for a quiz: What was the biggest health care breakthrough in the last 40 years in the United States? Heart bypasses? CAT scans and M.R.I.’s? New cancer treatments?
No, it was the cigarette tax. Every 10 percent price increase on cigarettes reduced sales by about 3 percent over all, and 7 percent among teenagers, according to the 2005 book “Prescription for a Healthy Nation.” Just the 1983 increase in the federal tax on cigarettes saved 40,000 lives per year.
That being said, I would be very skeptical of an unhealthy food tax, especially on the federal level, because I don't particularly trust the government to know what's healthy and unhealthy. Furthermore, such a measure would make it even harder for them to change their recommendations in the face of new evidence, for fear of looking stupid.
Ironic, considering that his solution to obesity is to tax unhealthy foods, which sounds very much like a bandaid solution to fix something that's already broken.
Why not suggest things to actually prevent obesity in the first place? Like fitness awareness campaigns bought to schools, health food awareness campaigns in corporate settings and so on, just to toss a few ideas up.