> 3. if you really want to improve public health, you might as well start banning harmful products and practices, and mandating healthy ones.
I would like to see that. More regulations or taxes or even bans and mandates (within reason -- we don't want a prohibition like situation that does more bad than good) applied to supermarkets and food chains (not individuals) are needed, for two reasons. The first being that they're taking my money for their healthcare, which gives me moral buy in into questions surrounding any self destructive habits that will take more money from me than necessary. The second being that the concept of free individual choice doesn't cleanly apply to any product that hacks our dopamine system, as with unhealthy food being sold to people who are addicted to unhealthy food, i.e. the morbidly obese.
I agree. There is probably a case to be made that industrialized, mass-produced, hyper-processed food has led to terrible nutritional consequences in the U.S. that regulators should reevaluate heavily.
I would like to see that. More regulations or taxes or even bans and mandates (within reason -- we don't want a prohibition like situation that does more bad than good) applied to supermarkets and food chains (not individuals) are needed, for two reasons. The first being that they're taking my money for their healthcare, which gives me moral buy in into questions surrounding any self destructive habits that will take more money from me than necessary. The second being that the concept of free individual choice doesn't cleanly apply to any product that hacks our dopamine system, as with unhealthy food being sold to people who are addicted to unhealthy food, i.e. the morbidly obese.