Fat People - A Burden On The State?
 

I'm not talking about the average overweight person, I'm talking about the obese to morbidly obese people who are so fat that they can't work and rely on benefits. Once on these benefits they proceed to use tax payers money to eat and become even bigger, often resulting in serious health problems and being able to claim the weight as a disability. They don't have to take any responsibility for their actions as many western governments seem to allow this kind of behaviour.

Do you think that this is fair? Do you believe that being over-weight should be classed as a disability? Do you think it's beyond belief that people get to these weights? Should there be some kind of program/boot camp they should be put into before being allowed to just sit on benefits for the rest of their lives? This would cost money yes but perhaps not as much in the long term.

Now in regards to people on benefits, I am only talking about obese people here, I'm not talking about lazy people, genuinely sick people, those made redundant, etc etc.

My final question is, do you think that it is being more accepted to be overweight now due to the number of people who are overweight. Does this give people the excuse to not take care of themselves?

From a purely pragmatic standpoint, yes, they are a burden. But then, so is every other kind of disability, and I wouldn't ever agree with just letting these people die. I'd say your idea of trying to help obese people recover would be good. Chances are many of them will never actually lose much weight, but for those that do and manage to get back into (relative) health, it will be worth it. You could also argue that it's best to assist these people before they actually reach the dangerous stage, such as when they hit the clinically obese mark. After all, they've got a lot less weight to lose at that point.

I also just want to mention, not only is the tax payers taking care of their day to day living and food, they are also paying for any health issues that arise such as cancer, diabetes and heart diseases.

Obese people who can't work and claim disability are huge burdens to all of society. I don't think they should be provided any more beneifts than your average person. It is their choice to live that type of lifestyle and shouldn't be rewarded with disability money for being fat and lazy.

Fat family claims disability

This country hands out disability checks like hotcakes it seems. Seems to me like it's way too easy to claim disability for just about anything. Hell, I think Paloma could claim disability if she wanted (what a joke). It promotes being lazy and worthless to society and I don't like it. Taxpayers basically pay for some obese loser to eat themselves to death. I don't want to hear any bullshit excuses from fat people either about their genetics or hereditary obesity or whatever. Christ, you don't even have to exercise, just eat at a calorie deficit everyday. You won't look like a supermodel but at least you won't be morbidly obese. I want to be clear that I don't personally hate these people and feel for them and their families if and when they become sick, but it's a joke that they get paid for being fat. Stop paying them, and they can either be responsible human beings and change their eating habits or they can become poor and die.

It is possible for it to be caused by genetics, though, sir.

Seriously, when they receive benefits all they want to do is eat and get fatter? I'm not so sure about this.

I don't think you can get disability from being fat alone, it's more the actual health concerns associated with obesity, like respiratory problems or something.

A lot of medications make you fatter, combine that with higher overall stress from having difficulty in normal situations all day(ex trying to sit on the bus) and disability starts making a little more sense.

I'm not saying there aren't plenty of people who abuse it, but I would rather it exist and help some people then just not exist at all.

there are no such benefits here

morbidly obese either shape up or they ship out (off the mortal coil) here

This thread makes me think some of you don't understand how hard/how long it takes to get disability.

My dad had a back injury/surgery and had to get disability.
It took a couple years for them to even hear his case.

It's easy over here, you get a doctor to proclaim you are ill enough not to work and bam you're on the sickness benefit. On the news tonight a well known boxer has been on the sickness benefit because he had hurt his elbow, yet he is still going to fight on telly in a couple of nights. He claimed he 'forgot' he was on it. Yeah right.

I'll agree that people that lead unhealthy lives are a burden on the state. Whether it's the 6 pack of cigarettes a day or six pack of Twinkies. What guidelines should governments go by declaring someone obese. One person's obese is another person's extra weight from the holidays.

i'm seeing a lot of hate here towards fat people.
oprah was once obese, right? and she was never a burden to America, economically speaking.

I watched the movie/documentary" super size" me the other day on youtube and its scary some of the numbers and statistics that were shown. This guy eats McDonalds 3 times a day for 30 days to see what would happen health wise. Yes its a lil extreme but for some its not to far of a stretch from their daily routine. Its free to watch on youtube, and you dont have to download it or anything. Id recommend watching just to see all the problems this guy starts having health wise. Its crazy, and I never really gave it much thought till I watched this the other day. Im lucky enough to have pretty high metabolism so I can eat a lot of junk food for long periods of time and never really get fat. When I drank I would sometimes start to put on a few extra pounds whenever I would get carried away with my drinking, but I would back off and start watching my intake and exercising.(cutting out cokes and fast food junk food etc) Weight is something to me that can be helped in my mind. All you have to do is watch what you eat, and ****ing exercise if your not happy with how you look weight wise. Stop griping about it or talking about it, and just do it already. Losing weight is rather easy ive found, and exercise becomes something you will enjoy after you get into the routine. Eating healthy starts to taste just as good after you realize how in tune you are with your body and how much better you feel eating healthy. Its fun to eat junk food and drink cokes but if your doing it to the point that your causing yourself health issues or becoming reliant on the goverment to take care of you. Then you might want to reconsider you diet and make some necessary changes to better yourself. I realize this may be easier said then done but maybe some ultimatims should be given for a little motivation. I mean I struggled with drinking for years now but just put it down cold turkey a month ago this friday and cigerettes as well a week later. To me they go hand in hand anyway. Im not on a patch or going to any A.A. meetings at the moment but it was something I felt it was time for me to do so im doing it. Its that simple and theres no reason that over indulgence of food shouldnt be that simple as well. Food to me is like anything else..if you want to stop eating so much then you will. This isnt rocket science

There's another documentary called, Fat Head (haven't seen it yet), that refutes some of the information in Super Size Me.

Having a high metabolism doesn't necessarily make you healthy and that's my problem with obese people. It's not just their eating habit, but their need for inactivity. A healthy person needs to be doing a minimum of 30 minutes of cardiovascular activity a week. I'm not saying you (not specifically you, but everyone), need run marathons (I'll do that for you), but jump on a bike or a treadmill and don't stop til that episode of 2 1/2 Men is over.


If we start penalizing the fatties, where will it end? How about people who tan? A line has to be drawn at some point and I'm not comfortable with politicians telling me what to do.

i don't mind fat people. they're actually quite nice to look at.

Thats also true that im not comfortable with the government having that much control either. If its to the extreme though that people are needing help from the government cause they cant seem to pass up the KFC and get in a little excercise. Then there should be some kind of process they should have to go through upon qualifying for help. Like maybe some health classes, and things like that..or maybe a shock collar that goes off whenever they start to drool at the thought of french fries and double meat cheesburgers..JK. Seriously though something could be set in place to help get them on the right track, and help them regain control over their life. If they refuse then they could seek help somewhere other than the government. If they're not wanting government help then honestly I dont care what they look like or want to eat. Be fat all you want to be fat if thats what makes ya happy, but dont do it to the extent that your a burden on the tax payers. Or get mad whenever someone makes fat jokes and start to cry about something you can easily fix yourself. It doesnt take smarts or talent or cost any money to be self motivated to lose weight so spare me the excuses.

I eat as healthy as possible, work out 7 days a week, and I'm at a healthy weight. Eating without concern and not working out will catch up sooner or later. I always ask people, how many 300 lbs, 80 year olds. do you see walking around? Not many. I'm not too sure there's an afterlife, so I have to live this life as healthy and fulfilling as possible. None of my grandparents lived beyond 65 and I'm determined to live 30 years beyond that.

On another note...I find it sad that we have people that die in this country (and others), because they eat too much, while there are people that die in our countries of starvation.

wow some of you have it so far off base it's not even funny.

People with disabilities that are trying to get their claims pushed through have to jump through so many hoops that it takes forever for them to get it. It's not something that is taken lightly and just handed out to any and everyone. My old roommate had this problem with his back that prevented him from working but it was an odd rare case that hasn't been documented before so they kept sending him to different doctors for different opinions. The case that he had took about 3 years before he could get disability.

I highly doubt they are just giving away disability to obese people because they lack self control to stop from eating fast food. If in some rare case that someone gets disability for being obese you bet it will be because of some medical condition associated with it for example a thyroid problem/condition or something similar.

If they're eatng problems caused them to have medical problems then thats a fault of theirs that could have been prevented with a little self awareness. No different than if my liver failed from years of alcohol intake when I drank or lung cancer from when I smoked. At some point we as Americans should take some accountability for our own actions instead of always thinking the government and tax payers or anyone but ourselves owes it to us to bail us out of every single thing.

Of course someone with a legitimate disability should be granted help but that wasnt the topic at hand here.

that's not the medical problems/conditions I'm referring to.

this is the type of condition that isn't brought on by eating unhealthy

The ones you are talking about is like people getting type 2 diabetes and things of that nature.

You can't get disability for having type 2 diabetes which is brought on because you have gained too much weight that your body can't handle.

well, there is cheap healthcare if you are diseased

no free income if you're over-obese and lack exercide and eat too much

i've seen a lot of over-obese people here and they get along just fine

So your saying there arent any medical problems that could qualify someone for disability that was obviously a direct result of them being morbidly obese? Lots of medical problems stem from a poor die,t and weight issues. It doesnt always have to be type 2 diabetes or be a result of a thyroid problem either. Some people just flat out refuse to do anything to help themselves in many different areas of life not just obesity.

yes that's exactly what I'm saying.

If I'm wrong and you know of any and have any articles related to it feel free to prove me wrong.

i don't mind being wrong and learning something new.

Could a heart attack not be a direct result of piss poor dieting? Then if its serious enough itll leave them handicapped, and unable to perform the duties of a job they would normally be qualified for if they had not chosen to team up with Colonel Sanders chicken 6 days out of the week?

IF YOU HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK WILL YOU QUALIFY FOR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY?

i team up with him once only about in a fortnight

I don't even think there's a question about it. But fat being a disability, ****ing ludicrous. Get off your fat arse and get a ****ing job and stop sponging off the government. I don't mind fat people. But immobile obese people deserve everything they get for not doing anything about it.

:laughing: well said

What pisses me of is when I go shopping at Walmart. They provide a few electric shopping scooters for disabled people to utilize. Do disabled people actually get to use them? No. The lazy, fat asses sit on them and drive around the store, stinking it up, acting like the world owes them something. If you are too fat to go shopping for the food that will inevitably make you fatter, then you are too f*cking fat.

I've seen these fat people actually berate the door greeters for there not being enough of these scooters. These fat asses will sit at the front door of the store and wait until one frees up to do their shopping. Then the scooter gets so stressed that it dies in the middle of the store, and these fat asses are too lazy to walk to the front to get another one. They sit on the dead scooter, in the middle of the aisle, yelling for someone to get the manager and get them another scooter. Wow.

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/a...ooters-013.jpg:laughing: Yeah can i get an order of "IM TO FAT TO WALK AROUND PIZ"..with some "scooter nasty cankles" and "Mccellulite buns" also...thanks. Oh and **** you! Im on disability!

I agree with this statement.

It's interesting to me that obesity is the last acceptable form of hatred permitted in modern society, just as we're working so hard at eradicating homophobia and racism. How barbaric.

This isn't to say that I agree or disagree with the comments that have been made, merely that the degree of speech used in this thread, and still accepted in society is alarming to me.

Very eye opening.

:laughing:

I agree totally with Pedestrian about obesity being the last acceptable form of hatred.

They're no more a burden than alcoholics, junkies or people that are too stupid to use contraception.But I guess drink, drugs & sex are cool things so that makes them acceptable.

I have thyroid problems, my whole family has. It genetic.
If my weight ever ballooned up it's nice to know that you lot are going to suddenly assume I'm lazy and a burden on the state.
Thanks for that.

Well I don't think anyone's saying "We love junkies and pregnant teens and love paying for their lifestyles! We hate all fat people!"

Yes but junkies or alcoholics, they just have 'a problem'

Fat people, well they're just lazy.

Fair do's if someone has a thyroid problem or any other problem that would influence someones weight to creep up. I have one and my mum has one. That's something that actually works against your metabolism, so a little extra weight is predictable. Whereas people who have absolutely ****all wrong with them, induce health problems themselfs due to their obesity. It's just not nice at all and the government shouldn't be there to feed them once they're too fat to work. If this was a thread about people who are alcoholics or smackheads or silly little girls getting pregnant them I'd complain about them too. But it isn't.

You wouldn't question whether or not alcoholics have a problem with addiction, would you? Addiction and depression both feed in to obesity.

Ultimately, none of you seem to understand what you're talking about, presumably because you've never been fat and have no idea what series of circumstances go into the process of becoming obese.

Obesity caused by a thyroid or other uncontrollable circumstance is in the minority. Just like some alcoholics and drug addicts are predisposed to addiction. Addiction to alcohol can cause liver cancer, just like overeating and laziness causes obesity.

Yeah definitely because Alcoholics don't have a problem with addiction. :S

Alcoholism is very variable, theres a difference between alcohol dependent and actual Alcoholism.

The same for drug use and drug addiction.

If I was depressed, I'd go to a doctor, thats what they're there for. To help.
If I had an addiction, I'd go to a doctor, " "

You've never seen me, you know nothing of my background at all. Don't presume I've never been fat because I have and I done something about it because I DIDN'T want to be obese. I can vouch that it's easier said than done. But I still done it. At the end of the day.

Right, yet we're considerably more accepting of alcoholism than obesity, and the difference is even more dramatic on this website, where we've a number of current and recovering addicts.

I'm not calling anybody out at all or trying to cast them in a negative light, I'm merely stressing the double standard I've seen presented in this thread. How is it only okay to hate fat people? How is it okay to hate them at all?

I don't hate them. I dislike their lifestyle.