Is How Tall I Might Be An Issue For State Government To Work On?
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
With full disclosure being offered: For my current weight I’m not tall enough. With that admission, the question is should Nevada legislators be working on this matter in the interim period to develop laws in order to correct my and my fellow citizens of Nevada height problems? This is not to say that being tall enough isn’t a worthwhile thing for individuals to work at correcting. My point is mostly that it seems to me to be an individual responsibility, perhaps a family responsibility – but, not a matter for state lawmakers (who can’t seem to figure out where the limits of state spending are anyway) to be working to come up with a solution for.
I guess to carry that thinking out to its extreme – I also don’t consider the state government’s role to be involved in weight matters either. From this article in the Las Vegas Sun it would seem that I and members of the committee thinking about dealing with Nevada’s weight issue are not in agreement. As in the case of government programs to make people taller, it would seem that perhaps someone might want to consider the role government should be playing. Perhaps there are ways to incorporate healthy nutrition programs into education (although from the test scores and other information on how well Nevada schools are performing with basic education – I’m not sure we’d see positive results).
Maybe the plan that the members of the majority party are working on for our budget situation includes their “broader” tax structure -- based on having us pay state taxes on the “by-the-pound” rate. We’d have incentives to reduce our tax burden by becoming more in line with their belief that our personal weights should be determined by their social agenda.
As in the case of height, my point with weight, exercise and all the other critical things where government seems to be convinced that they should have detailed involvement and control over -- personal responsibility and family responsibility are central concepts that should limit any continuing public conversation about “doing something”.
Healthy choices for diet, exercise and all other aspects are individual matters. If government officials can’t get the boundaries of their business figured out on that, they really don’t think that they have any limits to what they believe they should be butting into…
With full disclosure being offered: For my current weight I’m not tall enough. With that admission, the question is should Nevada legislators be working on this matter in the interim period to develop laws in order to correct my and my fellow citizens of Nevada height problems? This is not to say that being tall enough isn’t a worthwhile thing for individuals to work at correcting. My point is mostly that it seems to me to be an individual responsibility, perhaps a family responsibility – but, not a matter for state lawmakers (who can’t seem to figure out where the limits of state spending are anyway) to be working to come up with a solution for.
I guess to carry that thinking out to its extreme – I also don’t consider the state government’s role to be involved in weight matters either. From this article in the Las Vegas Sun it would seem that I and members of the committee thinking about dealing with Nevada’s weight issue are not in agreement. As in the case of government programs to make people taller, it would seem that perhaps someone might want to consider the role government should be playing. Perhaps there are ways to incorporate healthy nutrition programs into education (although from the test scores and other information on how well Nevada schools are performing with basic education – I’m not sure we’d see positive results).
Maybe the plan that the members of the majority party are working on for our budget situation includes their “broader” tax structure -- based on having us pay state taxes on the “by-the-pound” rate. We’d have incentives to reduce our tax burden by becoming more in line with their belief that our personal weights should be determined by their social agenda.
As in the case of height, my point with weight, exercise and all the other critical things where government seems to be convinced that they should have detailed involvement and control over -- personal responsibility and family responsibility are central concepts that should limit any continuing public conversation about “doing something”.
Healthy choices for diet, exercise and all other aspects are individual matters. If government officials can’t get the boundaries of their business figured out on that, they really don’t think that they have any limits to what they believe they should be butting into…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 5/28/2010 4:52 AM 
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Health Legislative Interim Committee Nevada Obesity
Categories: Nevada Legislature
Tags: Health Legislative Interim Committee Nevada Obesity
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