The Obesity Thing
 

Interesting take on the Obesity thing: I wonder what the family would consider appropriate compensation. WTF?

'Too Fat' Family Wants Bigger Checks

"A British couple who say they can't work because of obesity-related health problems complained that the government checks they receive aren't enough to cover their living expenses. They aired their gripes in a story in the Telegraph.
Philip Chawner, 53, and his wife, Audrey, 57, haven't worked in 11 years. The government benefits they collect each year is equivalent to about $43,260 in American currency.

What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more," Philip Chawner told the newspaper.
The couple have two daughters -- Emma, 19, and Samantha, 21. The combined weight of the four is 1,160 pounds.
Each family member consumes 3,000 calories a day, about 500 over the recommended maximum for men and 1,000 over the limit for women, the Telegraph says.
Audrey Chawner admitted the family's diet isn't the best. But healthy food is "too expensive," she said.

Maybe they could start a garden - get healthy food AND exercise!

People like them deserve to be shot, their bodies ground up, and used as fertilizer on farmland to help grow food for rest of us who aren't wastes of oxygen. It IS your fault you can't work, YOU are the reason you're so fucking fat and can't work, not your fairy-tale thyroid or any other lame-ass excuse. They don't deserve anything from the government but a bullet to the head.

now tell us how you really feel

Sooo agree, Bullitt. Don't tell me it's a thyroid thing, unless it really really is. Then I'm sorry I'm so insensitive. And obese is not an excuse to get a handicapped parking space either. You wouldn't have those "conditions" if you ate healthy and exercised.

Well its good to see that Americans aren't the only ones with the "entitlement mentality." Maybe if their compensation was zero they would be properly motivated to actually DO SOMETHING.

Yeh yeh, I'm a heartless bastard, whatevah.

I'd like to see some of what they get given to others who are REALLY TRYING to better themselves. (SG)

Sorry, sometimes these things make you wish eugenics worked.

If each family member eats 3,000 cal/day, I don't think you can say it's a thyroid problem.

Maybe they're eating thyroids?

I say we round 'em up, grind their fat, blubbery bodies into a solution that I can use to power my vegetable-oil powered car.

I lost count of how many problems I just solved.

If they WERE eating thyroids (like cow thyroids) they'd lose weight (hyperthyroidism).

Effortless weightloss: my dream disease.

;)

I almost created a thread from this story last week, even to the point of typing it up, but then I deleted it at the last minute because I felt I was lacking sufficient compassion.

I know there are some Cellar posters who are struggling with food problems, or other addictions, and I didn't want to make them feel bad.

for me it's not a lack of compassion (lord knows I've my own issues) but the fact that they are so blatantly refusing to see their part in the problem - asking for more of a hand-out. The article doesn't say if they are at least trying to address the problem; maybe they are but from the tone of it it doesn't sound like it.

What about counseling, behavior modification, support groups? If they were a family of heroin addicts asking for more money, (and the "it's not my fault" mentality*) would you feel as sympathetic?

*realizing addictions are not "faults" but the behavior should be addressed.

Suppose they let them keep the compensation, but distributed it in a city-wide scavenger hunt? That would get them moving, inspire them to move faster than everyone else looking for easy money, and provide an incentive to get in better shape.

lol - thats a good one, sweet.

Here's the Telegraph article that I was going to post. It includes more detail and a group photo. The father really doesn't look very big.