Pay for me to lose weight!!

While this proposal goes back a little ways and the outcome has yet to be decided, it has been suggested to the Victorian government in Australia that the government should pay for lap band surgery for obese teenagers. This pretty much speaks for itself. In general terms, should it be the responsibility of governments to pay for weight-loss surgery for teenagers? And why are we stopping with teenagers? If we pay for them, should we not also pay for adults who have been 'victimised' by corporate advertising campaigns resulting in a steady diet of Big Macs and Zingers?

Me? Well I'm utterly opposed to this use of tax payer dollars. It feels to me that we, as a society, are no longer taking responsibility for ourselves and our lives. Child breaks his arm on a set of monkey bars? Parent sues the school or the local council. Burn your tongue on hot coffee? Try suing. And now we've come to 'Hey I'm fat - help me out'. As a skinny person, I'd argue that the government should pay for my steroids so I look like all the other beefcakes. Fair and reasonable huh? No? So why should we pay for the people on the opposite extreme? Sure my lack of superhero muscles isn't immediately life-threatening but should I be attacked in the street then my inability to benchpress 250 may cause me to die. Or alternatively my body issues may become so extreme that I spiral into a suicidal depression. I feel like my life is threatened - pay for Aaron my personal trainer and a big grab bag of anabolic steroids!

The culture of not taking responsibility, anti-responsibility (?), that has migrated rapidly from the USA to other 1st world countries over the past few years is easily as scary and insidious as the obesity epidemic. Give it a few more years and genetic engineering may eliminate all these kinds of worries. In the meantime I'll be damned if my tax dollars are going to the progeny of irresponsible parents.

As a disclaimer, I should actually add that I like my ladies with some boo-tay, so this is not a rant against fat people. Yes I'm saying fat people. Political correctness has it's place, for sure. But there's a point at which it has gone a little too far. Folks, someone who is less than 6foot tall and weighs over 110kg is fat. There's no way round that. I also still find it cute the way Singaporeans often avoid the word 'fat' and substitute it with 'chubby'. Chubby has such cuteness connotations!