Last week, I flew south for Thanksgiving. Getting on the plane, I found that my seat was next to an older man who was obese. The arm rest was up and his body was already taking up half my seat before I sat down. I managed to cram myself in, but I was literally sitting sideways. They even had to give this guy a seat belt extender because he couldn't get the seat belt to buckle.
Luckily, I saw an open seat and moved up before takeoff. If I would have been stuck next to this person, it certainly wouldn't seem fair in the sense that my ticket gives me a right to a certain seat, but I only had access to half of it. But this experience is just another example of an externality (as it's called in economics) - when a person is positively or negatively impacted by another but is not compensated for it.
In this case, an airline could implement a solution that says if you can't fit into one seat, then you have to pay for two. As far as I know, no airlines currently do this. So in the meantime, if you have to wedge yourself into your seat, you're just out of luck.
This relates to a point that was brought up in the comments from the previous post. The question is, if people demand junk food and the market then provides it, is this a beneficial situation (giving people what they want)? My vote is no, for a number of reasons.
First, you could make an economic argument. In the U.S., the obese and unhealthy need more medical care, and this drives up costs for the rest of the population. Since insurance is often pooled, it is usually the case of the healthy subsidizing the unhealthy. However, this is just a dollars and cents argument, and even if this wasn't the case (such as the obese dying young and having lower lifetime medical costs), it isn't my central argument.
Ultimately, my argument comes down to negative externalities. In today's society, things are more interconnected than ever before, and therefore the various impacts people have on each other is greater than ever. There are a million examples for this, both large and small.
Here's one example: secondhand smoke. For years, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous to have smoking and non-smoking sections in restaurants, when the smoke obviously circulated through the whole place. They even used to let people smoke on long airplane flights. Then the science caught up and showed the damage of second-hand smoke. Unfortunately, it's too late for the damage already done. Memo to those who died from second-hand smoke: sorry about that.
What about DUIs? Though police have stepped up patrols, I still read about drivers killing others via DUIs all the time. There is no way to police every single person drinking at every single bar in the country.
What about the current housing bubble that is deflating? You can view it solely through an individual lens, and say that some homeowners got in over their head and now they're in foreclosure. But what about the neighbors? Take a look at Cleveland, where foreclosures are ruining neighborhoods. Foreclosed and abandoned houses have increased the levels of crime and drugs in various communities. The responsible neighbors who are making their payments on time are now saddled with low property values and bad neighborhoods.
Negative externalities happen all the time. The government won't catch them all or won't catch them in time to prevent many troublesome or fatal situations. Ultimately, I believe it is the responsiblilty of each part of the community (residents, schools, and businesses) to account for their impact on others.
I wrote last year about research showing that obesity is "contagious" - not in the sense of a virus, but that it is socially contagious the way it spreads through peer groups. Again, we have a negative externality - in this case, one person's decision to eat poorly indirectly influences the health status of others.
And what about the responsibility parents have as role models? Children don't have a choice whether they are born to obese parents or not, and the risk of obesity in these families is obviously much higher than average.
If someone was living on a desert island and wanted to smoke, drink, and eat themselves to death, that would be one thing. But if a person is living in a community, has influence as a peer, and is a role model to children, then their actions will impact others.
Companies such as those that sell and promote junk food contribute to this process and generate negative externalities in addition to their profits. Communities are not compensated for these externalities. In simpler terms, these companies are not taking full responsibility for their actions.
