The social safety net that has been erected over the last forty-five years makes it almost impossible for anyone who is down on their luck to not qualify for some sort of public or charity assistance. It would seem that anyone who would go hungry does so either from ignorance of the system or pride.
Right, and if you look at my link above, you'll see that obesity actually correlates with poverty. Mind, no one has posited causation, but to my mind this is part and parcel of the same problem you'll see if you take a drive down Mt. Elliott in Day-twa, for example. There's lots of stuff there, all in a state of horrible, unblinking, uncaring, uncomprehending neglect.
Of course, some will say that this is a second-person problem - the poor tend obese because they haven't been properly taught. I ask, if person A's state is the responsibility of Person B, who is then responsible for Person B? Or, is this not a formula for asymmetry; dependency on one side and obligation on the other? How can that square with equality before the law as an individual, a fundament of Western legal tradition - never mind individual responsibility?
I pose that all as a philosophical question - related to problem solving, not as political prescription, of which I've been careful to offer none. I don't really care t ofix this mess since Ididn't make it. Kipling has already promised it a healthy does of terror and slaughter.
