Obesity Numbers Worsen: "Experts" avoid most obvious factors

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently released its annual report on obesity in the United States. It found to no one's surprise that obesity rates continue to increase in 28 of the 50 states. The report goes on to speculate about the meaning of various factors and associations. They discuss East vs West, North vs South, rich vs. poor, white vs. black vs. brown, and the regional severity of economic down turns. Of course the underlying message behind the report and the media's interpretation of the results is that greater federal efforts are needed to curb this epidemic in girth. That's because the investigators and the media view everything through a socialist big government prism. If root causes and remedies do not lend themselves to the narrative of "inequality" (or just under the surface oppression and exploitation) they will not be considered. Indeed, I did not see any breakdown of the obesity numbers to single parent families, mothers working outside the home, or how involved fathers are in raising and directing their children's lives. I would also like to see how much the rate of obesity increases in people who go on Medicaid, food stamps, welfare and other government programs. My guess is that this would be staggering to the point that obesity is nearly inevitable. Alas, these questions are not asked or at least not reported by the media if they are asked at all because the big government-academic-journalistic complex would be forced to consider and acknowledge the breakdown of the family, the erosion of the work ethic, the marginalization of fatherhood, the exaltation of the working mother, and the transformation of public schools from centers of education to mere conduits for nanny state programs and leftist social experimentation as contributors. The government can continue to pour money into this crisis but until the root causes are addressed it will do nothing but further extend governmental power into individual lives and bankrupt the country.