Look around. When, as the article mentions, the option is no pill vs some pill that helps in some way; for most people the pill makes sense.
As it is today, many people could alter their diets and improve their health. Yet they do not.
In an ideal world this pill makes little sense. But our First World world of today is far from ideal. Put another way, they say that worldwide more people die from eating too much than not eating enough.
I hear ya. I do, in theory, agree with you. But the reality is most people don't care to take care of themselves. And they wonder why healthcare costs are so high.
But there is a third option: make that First World world more ideal.
Sugar water and other high calorie stuff could see the same treatment tobacco got; cars could be banned from city centers to make room for bicycle lanes and lush pedestrian zones, parking lots could be required to be at least half a mile from offices and shopping malls, with nice walking paths between the two, etc.
Or maybe we could just play loud patriotic music over loudspeakers every morning, and use armed guards to force people to fall out for PT.
"cars could be banned from city centers to make room for bicycle lanes and lush pedestrian zones, parking lots could be required to be at least half a mile from offices and shopping malls,"
Screw old people and the handicapped, eh?
Here's a better idea: live your life the way you want. Don't force others to live the way you want.
Because, you know, granting government that level of power that doesn't end up where you imagine that it ends up.
Old people and the handicapped would IMO be fine. Car free streets make street crossings a lot less scary and allow for streets that are less wide.
Those that still need it could safely use strollers and wheelchairs.
There also would likely be fewer handicapped. Allowing healthy people to drive huge four-wheel drive “wheelchairs” from the time they are 18 doesn’t make the population healthier.
I also doubt people currently live the way they want. If you ask a 40 year old with diabetes and a BMI of >30 whether they do, do they say so?
“Government of the people, by the people, FOR the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”.
Governments should shape society to make people happier. Just as with other tasks (product design, educating kids) that doesn’t mean giving them what they say they want.
Judging by things such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index, some governments are better at providing what their people want then others. Call me an optimist, but I think the top ones have been granted “that level of power”.
So you are saying that if we grant our governments the awesome power of city planning (which the government already has, do you think cities are just a random collection of buildings brought up by the first person who could buy a spot of land?) what slippery slope would we go down?
Yes cars are harmful, to everyone, and they don't make a city more accessible (old people also can't drive when they start losing their sight for instance). Public transport makes cities accessible. You can live your life however you want, until you start hurting everyone else's.
Look around. When, as the article mentions, the option is no pill vs some pill that helps in some way; for most people the pill makes sense.
As it is today, many people could alter their diets and improve their health. Yet they do not.
In an ideal world this pill makes little sense. But our First World world of today is far from ideal. Put another way, they say that worldwide more people die from eating too much than not eating enough.