To curtail Japan's overweight population, the Japanese health ministry recently mandated that all waistlines among its 56 million workers over age 40 be below “regulation size” of 33.5 inches (for men). Any company failing to bring its employees’ weight under control--as well as the weights of their family members--will be fined up to 10% of its earnings by the government.
The Bloomberg story linked in the post above is a little less exclamatory:
Companies will be required to cut the number of overweight workers and dependents by 10 percent as of 2012 and 25 percent by 2015. Failing to do so will result in a surcharge of as much as 10 percent on contributions to a fund for elderly care. Insurance groups paid 6.4 trillion yen into the fund in 2004.
Still, the threat is ominous. It shouldn't be against the law to be fat, and companies shouldn't be penalized because their workers are fat.
Update, 4/10/08: Socialized health care isn't polling well, but it's polling better than makes me comfortable.
4 comments:
There are people in political office right now who would sign such a bill. Texas,right now, is mandating that all students be tested via a skills test every year. While there is no graduation requirement now, the unsaid promise is that down the road there will be. So what does that say to the shy, overweight kid who studies hard and makes a perfect score on the SAT but still can't graduate because he can't run a mile in under eight minutes? To my mind it says that your ability to be an athlete is more important than your ability to think. Don't we get enough of that stuff just with football?
It OK for the government to infringe on individual rights as long as it for the greater good. The government should be trusted to make sure that despite the individual citizen's inability to make decisions that are right and healthy for them, the government can step in and make everything right. The government is the only entity equipped to take care of its citizens and make sure everything is fair and even. Thankfully, the Dems know this. Just ask them.
"Still, the threat is ominous. It shouldn't be against the law to be fat, and companies shouldn't be penalized because their workers are fat."
That is the free market, not socialism.
It's not free market when the government tells you to, troll.
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