It's For Your Own Good II

This is a sequel for a post from yesterday.

Kevin Fleming on this story:

"Gingrich, out of elected office, was free to depart from his anti-government roots. With Clinton nodding in support, he came out in favor of mandatory daily physical education, healthful food in schools and a "transfer of finances" from rich to poor. Some of this," Gingrich said after a long list of concessions to the left, "may surprise you."

Mandatory exercise and diets? Mandatory??

Hey, if recovering health care costs and certainly reducing the sales of cigarettes by taxing them was alright, then why not taxing fast food or candies or fatty foods. Even better, make daily exercise mandatory. It will reduce health care costs plus IT'S GOOD FOR YOU, YOU MORON.

/LLL

This encroachment into our private lives was the main reason for my opposing extra taxes on (and outright banning of) cigarettes. If the government can do that to a *bad* substance, then what's stopping them from extending that logic to sugary foods. The stated reason for the cigarette laws was the health of non-smokers and added costs to health care but we know that was baloney.

The government wanted it's hands on more general revenue. Of course, a lot of people bought the health and costs excuses and that's one of the many problems with a socialist-style system. The costs for your actions (smoking, not wearing seat belts, always sitting in front of a TV) are incurred by the entire society. Thus, the rest of society has an interest in making your actions as risk-free as possible. Ergo, you end up with less freedom. Mandatory exercise or mandatory fitness is the socialist health care logic taken to it's extreme.

Kevin Fleming:

P.S. Has Gingrich gone completely mad?

It seems he has embraced the Dark Side. It's a tragedy.