{Maybe I'm just in an irascible mood like most everyone else right now, waiting impatiently for spring to, well, spring. I think it is more than that, however; after traveling through Appalachia recently and seeing how towns are being ravaged by fast food restaurants at the expense of good food restaurants, I found myself pretty generally disgusted.}
I'm all for free enterprise as long as it doesn't destroy another's way of life. I've heard many of the arguments as well as the "oh, come on!" reactions to Mayor Bloomberg's push to ban massively-sized sugared drinks. This is a free country, right? We should be able to make our own choices, right?
Maybe.
Being a Libertarian, I tread around the word "maybe" with a great deal of caution. I truly believe in each person's right to live and let live until it infringes on one's neighbor's rights. That's where the "maybe" comes in to my thoughts.
Tom and I went on a little trip to the East Coast and, during our travels, ended up in several little towns between here and there. The one recurrent thing in most every town was the lack of a good restaurant. Lots of fast food ala burger joint or convenience store, but very few places to get a plate lunch or supper with vegetables. And fruit? Not unless it was in a slushy or a wrapper. We figured this might happen, so we packed accordingly and had a supply of healthy foods with us.
But what about the folks that live there? What about the folks that are met with so few choices every day?
I know...they can go to the grocery and cook at home. But really...how many actually do that anymore?
We all complain about the Walmarts and how they have destroyed Main Street and the town square. I agree. But what about all the fast food restaurants that have destroyed all the family-owned restaurants? They are to be mourned as well.
I have a moral disgust with fast food chains. Report after report has been published speaking of the addiction that these foods purposely bring to their patrons--the salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats--and they continue to shamelessly keep building store after store with no regard to the local businesses they're destroying and the health issues they're causing in all age groups in the population, most dreadfully,the youngest. Now they offer all the $1 "deals", so a family (especially those on fixed incomes) can eat a "meal" for around $3 apiece...sounds like a real deal until you factor in that this will probably be a large soft drink or sweet tea with around 86 grams of sugar, a burger full of filler, a bun that more resembles the carb content of cake, and french fries that...well...they're hardly worth wasting words.
Yep, I'm pretty steamed about them.
Fast food is wrecking our health as well as our economy. People eat these excess calories with little nutritional value and, in turn, over time develop obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure. Health costs skyrocket as more and more of the population must depend on a steady supply of medications to treat these diseases. And more and more fast food places are built in every little, middle-sized, and large town/city...along the interstates...on university campuses. Everywhere.
The pursuit of free enterprise is one thing, but the pursuit with all disregard for one's fellow man (and woman and child) is just too much.
