My taxable income comes from a paltry wage that I earn at a gas bar. I get the daily weather report from every customer, the odd complaint about the weather and once in awhile I get to have an intelligent conversation with someone - for about 10s. I also get customers who come in talking on their phones and complete the entire transaction without saying hello (rude), people who have an opinion about the price of fuel and once in awhile a bit of a frustration at the cost of cigarettes.
We sell a lot of "junk" in this place I call work..."energy drinks" are horribly over priced, pop is not, we sell milk too. Ironically we sell a lot of milk mostly cuz people don't want to go inside the store and wait in line for 5 minutes to pay for a $5 item. We sell a tonne of chips, chocolate bars, and the latest and greatest of course is donuts. In this tiny cubicle we don't sell a lot of the donuts cuz they are bad for you. I witnessed the other day a mother preferring a chocolate bar for her 5 year old daughter over a donut. Calorie wise the donut had less but the sugar content was about the same, and the donut was cheaper. I figure that if people will still continue to buy junk they will pay whatever price it is going to be. Tobacco and alcohol sales don't necessarily go down because they go up in price, they don't really change as a matter of fact and I think that junk would end up being the same. People with defined addictions will do whatever they can to get what they need, children will continue to cry and embarass their parents in public because the "need" what they are asking for.
There is an 90 something lady who walks to the cube that I work in every few days to buy cigarettes. When the weather had turned exceptionally poor a family member had come in to buy them for her, she explained to us that this woman had actually quit smoking when she turned 80 and then as alzheimers had set in - she had forgotten that she had quit smoking and on a regular basis would walk several blocks to our establishment to make her big purchase of the week. Family members buy them for her and slip them into her purse when she isn't looking to simply protect her from the fall. Addiction is what it is - whether it be food, alcohol or tobacco and people will do whatever they can for their fix. I find it incredibly disturbing that parents feed this addicition to children to keep them quiet (or whatever reason they do it)...I'm not picking on parents, I am one myself of 4 distinctly different personalites and they all have their daily demands. Thankfully they don't ask for food as I haven't really encouraged it as a reward system. I get it - parenting is tough...I just think that for all of the things that we have to pick on in society - we seriously need to reconsider our priorities and look at alternative methods to some of the financial strains that our medical system has on it because we can't say no to something so small - but makes us so big. JMHO. Thats it for today as I go off to earn my taxable income.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
When pop is cheaper than a jug of milk...
This thing has been driving me crazy lately, as the world talks about all the latest issues that are upfront and in the way of delivering proper health care services or whatever. The one I think of childhood obesity and obesity in adults as well.
We all know that to eat healthy is a bit more expensive than eating convenience foods. I think about how society attacked the dirty little secrets of alcoholism - jacking up the prices of booze, cigarette smoking and jacking up the prices per pack. The cost of fuel to drive your car, the cost to heat your home - etc. That stuff has all increased in price at a rapid rate. They attack the smokers and make it prohibitive to continue as the cost of them continue to rise. More people quit & for the ones who continue to smoke - they are made to feel like social pariah's as a result - not being allowed to indulge in their habit anywhere. It is a stinky habit and I am not interested in debating the effects of others and cancer causing stuff as a result. I know all that stuff. What I am trying to get to is that the governments have put their hands in the pots of this particular issue...but they aren't doing anything about the actual cause of childhood obesity. Isn't it the fact that junk food is cheaper than healthy food, video game consoles and their games are cheaper than organized sports for families of more than one child, and for the people who have to work two or three jobs just make ends meet never really see their kids.
Obesity is a sensitive issue - I think that no one wants to be the one to say to people - "no". Those two little letters that have so much power, they are so difficult to say - especially to the kids. (not in my world but for many others) Taxing the bejesus out of junk food would certainly make it a lot more appealing to give your kid a banana instead of a chocolate bar, or realizing that the fastest food available is the stuff in the produce section. I think it is so sad that a jug of milk costs the same as six litres of pop. Real fruit juice is more expensive than a two litre of pop - the nutritional value is lost on the cost of the food. Instead of buying the video game console, buy a bike or two and send them out to play. Instead of driving the kids to school those few blocks, get them to walk. It won't hurt them...it certainly won't kill them or give them diabetes like those other things that we allow them to do.
Why is it that no one will buck up and say something about how this "epidemic" can actually be stopped? We live in an instant world, immediate gratification of the senses. Cooking dinner can be a chore but most of the time I enjoy it and I prefer to cook from as natural a source as possible. I like to know what I am giving my family to eat and at the end of the day I know that my kids are not obese, they are physically fit and they are happy.
The burden on the health care system is astronomical, they talk about how people who drink in excess or smoke are the cause of this problem, obesity is on the rise and is one of the things that is frightening to the healthcare system - a bigger burden than most other things out there. The really silly thing about all of this is that it is completely preventable (especially in children) but holding people accountable for their actions and pointing the preverbial finger at the people who buy this crap for their kids...well seriously - we don't wan to tell people how to parent their children. However - keeping your kid in a carset till their 12, banning swings from playgrounds, slides and trampolines, making it "illegal" to spank your kids, and I could go on and on - all things that protect our kids so that they have a better chance of surviving their childhood unscathed.
I am a bit of a hard ass on this but I just think it is really sad that the stuff that is good for you is for many too expensive and the cheaper alternative - which is not good for you - is for many the only option.
Ban junk food - or if there is a problem with the national debt, underfunding for healthcare - tax the crap out of it - treat it the same as tobacco and alcohol - the effects are the same - or are they?
We all know that to eat healthy is a bit more expensive than eating convenience foods. I think about how society attacked the dirty little secrets of alcoholism - jacking up the prices of booze, cigarette smoking and jacking up the prices per pack. The cost of fuel to drive your car, the cost to heat your home - etc. That stuff has all increased in price at a rapid rate. They attack the smokers and make it prohibitive to continue as the cost of them continue to rise. More people quit & for the ones who continue to smoke - they are made to feel like social pariah's as a result - not being allowed to indulge in their habit anywhere. It is a stinky habit and I am not interested in debating the effects of others and cancer causing stuff as a result. I know all that stuff. What I am trying to get to is that the governments have put their hands in the pots of this particular issue...but they aren't doing anything about the actual cause of childhood obesity. Isn't it the fact that junk food is cheaper than healthy food, video game consoles and their games are cheaper than organized sports for families of more than one child, and for the people who have to work two or three jobs just make ends meet never really see their kids.
Obesity is a sensitive issue - I think that no one wants to be the one to say to people - "no". Those two little letters that have so much power, they are so difficult to say - especially to the kids. (not in my world but for many others) Taxing the bejesus out of junk food would certainly make it a lot more appealing to give your kid a banana instead of a chocolate bar, or realizing that the fastest food available is the stuff in the produce section. I think it is so sad that a jug of milk costs the same as six litres of pop. Real fruit juice is more expensive than a two litre of pop - the nutritional value is lost on the cost of the food. Instead of buying the video game console, buy a bike or two and send them out to play. Instead of driving the kids to school those few blocks, get them to walk. It won't hurt them...it certainly won't kill them or give them diabetes like those other things that we allow them to do.
Why is it that no one will buck up and say something about how this "epidemic" can actually be stopped? We live in an instant world, immediate gratification of the senses. Cooking dinner can be a chore but most of the time I enjoy it and I prefer to cook from as natural a source as possible. I like to know what I am giving my family to eat and at the end of the day I know that my kids are not obese, they are physically fit and they are happy.
The burden on the health care system is astronomical, they talk about how people who drink in excess or smoke are the cause of this problem, obesity is on the rise and is one of the things that is frightening to the healthcare system - a bigger burden than most other things out there. The really silly thing about all of this is that it is completely preventable (especially in children) but holding people accountable for their actions and pointing the preverbial finger at the people who buy this crap for their kids...well seriously - we don't wan to tell people how to parent their children. However - keeping your kid in a carset till their 12, banning swings from playgrounds, slides and trampolines, making it "illegal" to spank your kids, and I could go on and on - all things that protect our kids so that they have a better chance of surviving their childhood unscathed.
I am a bit of a hard ass on this but I just think it is really sad that the stuff that is good for you is for many too expensive and the cheaper alternative - which is not good for you - is for many the only option.
Ban junk food - or if there is a problem with the national debt, underfunding for healthcare - tax the crap out of it - treat it the same as tobacco and alcohol - the effects are the same - or are they?
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