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LA Lawmakers Want to Escalate War on Obesity (& Fast Food)
online.wsj.com — An LA city-council member, is spearheading legislation that would ban new fast-food restaurants like McDonald's & KFC from opening in a 32-square-mile chunk of the city. The area is already home to some 400 fast-food restaurants, possibly contributing to high obesity rates there--30% of adults,compared with about 21% in the rest of the city...
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- christopherRB, on 07/22/2008, -0/+9The Law Makers need to mind their own business. ***** Them
- InRussetShadows, on 07/22/2008, -0/+8Let's escalate the war on city councils. :)
- punx, on 07/22/2008, -0/+5You know, people make their own decisions on what they want to eat. It's really their business if they want to eat crap that will make them obese, overweight, or unhealthy. I don't see why lawmakers feel the need to involve themselves in something that is a personal choice. If 30% of the people are overweight in that area, I want to know how many of those council members are considered fat.
- smacksaw, on 07/22/2008, -1/+3I hate this *****. This is what I call legislative sloth. Any politician can ban something. But how about finding a solution? For an example - you can ban trans-fats. That's fine. Because you replace them with non-hydrogenated oils.
Yet you ban these restaurants and replace them with...nothing.
Wow, real good job. What a stellar politician you are. God forbid you get off your ass and negotiate instead of act like a total fascist. God forbid you offer them SOME sort of alternative. I'm reminded of Vancouver, BC and Wal-Mart. They won't allow it. Just won't do it. Of course everyone simply goes to North Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, etc and shops, giving no revenue to Vancouver. But the concerns are lack of a union, dislike of the footprint of the shopping centre, sourcing of goods from China, etc. But if you don't address those issues, they aren't actually issues, they're just excuses.
Because it would be easy to stipulate to Wal-Mart. Ok, you want to open here? You have to use a design approved by the city. You have to allow a union at your store. You have to contribute to a fund to help small businesses. You have to source 30% of your store content from Canada and/or the US. But in reality, people just hate Wal-Mart. And since no one negotiates with them, they either ban them or capitulate to their outrageous demands, so we further this problem.
Last time I checked, Wendy's and McDonald's served FOOD. They can sell whatever the hell they want. If they want to open a store, they have to open a new kind of store with no trans-fat, natural food, low prices, etc. You have to be creative, not discriminatory. - tj241, on 07/22/2008, -1/+4Just what we need...more laws.
- anaesthetica, on 07/22/2008, -0/+3I'm sure that the city council will compensate fast food restaurants for several million dollars of lost revenue if their legislative ban turns out not to have any effect at all on obesity rates, right?
- binaryloop, on 07/23/2008, -0/+1The better model is the one that NYC is taking: force the companies to disclose what is in the food and stop them from making false claims through advertising. This is America and nobody should be forced to change their business. HOWEVER.... if your business is based on lying to people and misleading them (and making a fast buck via government subsidization of products like beef) then you should be forced to tell the truth. Force them to disclose what is in the food and educate the public. If they choose to eat the garbage anyway then ***** 'em. The people who eat this ***** deserve to die of heart attacks and complications from obesity. Just don't make me pay for it.
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