The Myth of the Lazy American
With obesity numbers on the rise in the U.S. I've been hearing more snide comments from international posters in the Usenet groups I frequent decrying the 'lazy American'. I have a gut feeling that obesity in American is due to Americans working too much.
How can this be? This seems like a contradiction.
The average American takes 13 days of vacation every year. This is time to recreate, have fun and excersise. For comparison the average French worker takes 37 days off a year. Even the notoriously industrious Japanese worker takes off 25 days a year. In that year the American worker produces almost $45,000 per citizen (man, woman or child). The French worker only produces about $28,000 per citizen. (Not that I'm picking on the French, but their numbers were easy to find.) Americans are certainly working, but is it work that will make them healthy7
The modern American has very little truly physically demanding job opportunities to choose from that will earn them the money needed to have the quality of life most Americans desire. There is certainly a monetary incentive to become 'white collar'. This leaves a large percentage of the population sitting in front of computer screens doing various tasks. After typing away for 8 hours, stopping only long enough to gulp down a 600 Calorie Big Mac, 450 Calories of Fries and 1 Calorie of diet cola, the common worker retires to their domicile to indulge in a form of entertainment that requires little more than an occational thumb press. Then its off to bed for 6 hours of restless sleep so they can get up early enough to make their long morning commute.
Its no wonder that Americans are fat and crabby.
Things that would improve the American health spectrum:
a) More vacation to encourage physical activity.
b) Longer lunch breaks to encorage healthier choice at lunch time.
c) Compensating a worker for excersising on the job, maybe with pay incentives or extended health coverage. Places to excercise should be readily available.
d) Health insurace coverage of gym memberships. (Ok I'm reaching now.)
e) Penalties for unhealhty lifestyle choices (including smoking and drinking).
I can't believe that it would cost more to implement the above and have a healthier populace than to deal with the cost of the health problems that arise from obseity.
Its true that Americans are getting fat. Its not because we're lazy, its because we are almost encouraged to work too hard and pay too little attention to our physical well being.
How can this be? This seems like a contradiction.
The average American takes 13 days of vacation every year. This is time to recreate, have fun and excersise. For comparison the average French worker takes 37 days off a year. Even the notoriously industrious Japanese worker takes off 25 days a year. In that year the American worker produces almost $45,000 per citizen (man, woman or child). The French worker only produces about $28,000 per citizen. (Not that I'm picking on the French, but their numbers were easy to find.) Americans are certainly working, but is it work that will make them healthy7
The modern American has very little truly physically demanding job opportunities to choose from that will earn them the money needed to have the quality of life most Americans desire. There is certainly a monetary incentive to become 'white collar'. This leaves a large percentage of the population sitting in front of computer screens doing various tasks. After typing away for 8 hours, stopping only long enough to gulp down a 600 Calorie Big Mac, 450 Calories of Fries and 1 Calorie of diet cola, the common worker retires to their domicile to indulge in a form of entertainment that requires little more than an occational thumb press. Then its off to bed for 6 hours of restless sleep so they can get up early enough to make their long morning commute.
Its no wonder that Americans are fat and crabby.
Things that would improve the American health spectrum:
a) More vacation to encourage physical activity.
b) Longer lunch breaks to encorage healthier choice at lunch time.
c) Compensating a worker for excersising on the job, maybe with pay incentives or extended health coverage. Places to excercise should be readily available.
d) Health insurace coverage of gym memberships. (Ok I'm reaching now.)
e) Penalties for unhealhty lifestyle choices (including smoking and drinking).
I can't believe that it would cost more to implement the above and have a healthier populace than to deal with the cost of the health problems that arise from obseity.
Its true that Americans are getting fat. Its not because we're lazy, its because we are almost encouraged to work too hard and pay too little attention to our physical well being.
posted by Carl at 2:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home