LA Banning fast food in the poor communities?

[Rosalind]

Kim, I think it is just a matter of this: When someone else is paying for you, they DO get to tell you how to live.

There's all sorts of instances in society where we pay for someone else's benefit, and as a result we get to tell them how to live. You don't get to do whatever you want at work--your boss tells you that you can't spend all day on BYC, makes you do certain tasks which might be annoying, tiresome or distasteful, probably makes you dress a certain way, talk a certain way, write a certain way.

We have emergency rooms for a reason, to treat people who are dangerously ill. What if everyone who came into the ER with a heart attack was told, "I'm sorry, if you have no insurance we can't treat you"? What if they had just been robbed of their wallet and had no proof of insurance? What if they had a heart attack in the middle of the night and couldn't find their wallet before the paramedics arrived? What if they had just received a new insurance card and the old one lapsed yesterday, but they hadn't put the new one in their wallets yet? What if they lost their job and their COBRA had run out before they could be eligible for self-insurance? What if their state laws were such that no self-insurance was available to them? What if they had a pre-existing condition that made them uninsurable in their state? There's no end to the legitimate reasons that make it infeasible to refuse treatment on the basis of inability to pay in an emergency room. An emergency is just that, you don't have three hours to dig through paperwork for the right card or to compile bank statements, you need treatment NOW. And that treatment can easily bankrupt any savings someone might have. It usually does bankrupt uninsured people. So, we don't demand payment in emergency rooms because doing so is tantamount to letting them die in horrible pain, or, sometimes worse, letting them live maimed and crippled in horrible pain while they die a slower death.

In countries where emergency rooms are not required by law to treat people, lots of people who go to the ER die shortly thereafter for that very reason, and the wealthy have private doctors with business connections to private hospitals, so they never have to worry about ERs. It's not a pretty sight, although the private hospitals are often quite lovely and patronized by Westerners.

 

[wishin4chicken]

I've been to other countries where the typical diet was extremely high in carbs and the people were thin. The citizens walked, biked, and worked hard as part of their daily life. People in the U.S. don't have a diet problem. They have a sit in front of the TV and do nothing problem. Oh, oh, I feel a rant coming on.

 

[penelope77]

oh thank you big brother for protecting us from ourselves.
welcome to communist america.

well i've been needing something to blog about so i have it now.

 

[tiki244]

I 'heard' about this certain large chain SUPERmarket/(all things store) going into neighborhoods and forcing smaller grocery stores and shops to shut down. Thus, limiting peoples choices as to where they could shop. Putting peoples jobs at risk, and paying a lower wage for people to work for them. Sometimes only a few years later pulling out of the areas and leaving empty buildings. All for the bottom line ($). In the process they would deplete the economy in ways I cannot talk about for I am not that elloquent. And I have a bad memory. But keep in mind this corporation has big bucks and lobbyiests in Washington, lobbying for special zoning laws and other things. So, in a sense, the 'government' does 'tell' us where we can shop in some instances. More so if a person is without transportation. {side note: this certain place offers' free range eggs' but it was proven they are not free rangre eggs}

So, it sounds like the idea is based on this premise in a backwards sort of way. Sounds like a social experiment, too. I dont know if once a neighborhood has been that depleted if it can rise from the ashes.

I do think our food system in the US is broke though. People do need to eat more local and the transition may not be too easy or cheap. I for one would benefit greatly if I could keep some goats for milk. I have a garden but if it wasnt for my sister giving me a hundred dollars and more of seed product I probably wouldnt. I am trying the 'no watering method' this year. Well, I watered only a couple of times. Just to have a water line to my house is $65 a quarter, thats with no water use whatsoever.

I also think there are other things in the US diet, that are banned in other countrys (again cant get to them off the top of my head), that increase obesity in this country. Artificial sweetener is one example, some kinds are sugar based and although they contain no calories, whenever a person consumes them there is an insulin spike, which tells the body cells to store fat. All the bad oils today in our diet compound the problem. We are told not to eat fat, yet fat is an essential part of our diet that we need to feel sated and also fat has some molecules that we need in our bodys to live healthy. Only the right kinds though, and they are expensive. All of the additives in food do variouse numbers on the body. Hormones in milk cause excessive weight gain. Banning fast food restaraunts doesnt adress any of these problems. And by the way, twinkies are NOT food

Anything that does not decompose is not food.

Over dependence on cars has caused excess weight gain. This is an example of a situation where the oil companies lobbied the government to quit making railroad public transportation a viable option, way back when(again bad memory). Thus, Americans are addicted to cars. And again, the large corporations make out big time.

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
That's exactly what it is. The city I grew up in no longer allows new drive-thrus to be built.
If you drove through this area in LA, you'd see there is NO shortage of fast food joints.

 

[PotterWatch]

The city I spend most of my time in (I live 2 blocks from the border of my city and this one), doesn't allow any fast food restaurants and never has. Doesn't bother me. If I want fast food, I drive somewhere else. If I want to eat in that city, I have healthier options though it does tend to be more expensive.

 

[Emzyyy]

i think its a good idea

 

[happyhen]

Trans-fats, fast foods (and the city explains that the demographics can no longer support more fast food eateries), the list goes on as to what we are "allowed" to eat.

While I encourage healthy options (yes, most fast food places offer them) I'm more concerned by our "nanny state's" oversight in detecting contaminated foodstuffs, usually imported.

I will stop now before I start to rant.

 

[fowltemptress]

I don't see a problem with prohibiting new fast food joints, if it's true what others said about there being plenty already. Fast food will still be an option. I'm not sure how they'll convince healthy food stores to move in . . . poor people live on Ramen and chips for a reason. I keep a garden because I want my grocery bill to stay below $150, and I can't do that if I expect to buy fruit and veggies.
I used to live in Carrollton, one of the dry cities in Texas. People would have to drive out of the city to bring back alcohol. Alot of people would leave town to drink, and in several cases this meant a drunk person would be on the road for a longer period of time, trying to get back home. I'd much rather live in a town where people are capable of walking home from a bar, if they wish. A drunk on a sidewalk is much less trouble than a drunk in a vehicle.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

Banning fast food does not mean healthy replacements...but they also have a trans-fat law going into affect also don't they? Or is another type of fat? And like speckledhen wrote pasta and rice are way cheaper...than meat and fresh veggies. The Atkins low carb diet had been proven to help prevent heart disease and lower diabeties(sp? need spell check sorry) in a recent study. So certain carbs are helping us on limited budgets to eat less healthy basicly. Simple carbs and complex carbs are different in how they break down and help us use our food.