If President Obama is really serious about getting the economy back in gear, he and Michelle better stop all this healthy eating nonsense and begin encouraging Americans to expand their waistlines. Because a new study, just now being published by the noted KIA blip1944, clearly proves that obesity is a major factor in generating US economic growth.
The US economy is overwhelmingly tied to consumer spending. In fact, more than 70% of the 15 trillion annual GDP is directly the result of consumer purchases. But of all the items that make up the consumer shopping list (homes, cars, clothing, gadgets, etc.,) only food is purchased in amounts based not on what the consumer needs, but by the size of the consumer.
Take clothes for example. Some men purchase 5 shirts each year, some purchase more, some purchase less. The number of shirts doesn't change whether the purchaser fits into a small, a medium or a large. But not true with food, because the larger the consumer, the more food he or she eats. And right now, according to the CDC, the "average" American above the age of 12 is actually consuming enough food to feed both himself and one-quarter of someone else. And more than one-third of the American population are consuming enough food to feed themselves and another half-person as well.
In other words, if we could totally eradicate obesity instantly, the amount of food that we would need to consume in order to maintain normal weight would drop by about 25%. What would that do to the American economy? Wreck it.
Here's the math: Last year we spent 1.3 trillion dollars eating out and eating in. And we spent just about an equal amount on both. In fact, the restaurant industry is the second largest employer in the United States. The total GDP last year was roughly 15 trillion, of which eating accounted for more than 7%. The amount we spent on stuffing ourselves last year was higher than the total GDP of more than 90% of the countries currently in the UN.
In addition to the value of all the food we consume in order to stay as fat as we are, there are other ways in which obesity contributes to the GDP. For example, it's estimated that we spend nearly 200 billion on medical care for illness caused by obesity. We also spend another 3 billion or so each year to pay for the additional gasoline that our cars utilize because they are carrying around so many fatties, along with the cost of early replacement of tires whose treads wear faster because they are supporting too much chassis weight. No doubt the fuel bills of the airlines are also higher because of the additional weight stuffed into the planes. And talking about clothes, ever notice how they add on a few bucks when you move into the Big and Tall (sic) sizes?
There's another economic benefit to fatness that probably dwarfs the money that flows into the economy from extra medical payments, gasoline, etc. This has to do with the type and cost of food that we eat as we fatten ourselves up. I don't have the figures handy yet, but obesity is directly tied to the consumption of processed foods, in particular what used to be called "junk" food, but has now become the staple of many diets. Potato chips are not only fattening, they are also expensive. A ten-ounce bottle of soda now runs a buck seventy-five. How many tubes of Pringles does someone have to consume to maintain their weight at 40% above the recommended BMI? I think you get the point.
Not only does the American style of eating help grow the economy, it also doesn't cost the U. S Treasury one dime. You don't need to pump 700 billion into the economy through a government-run stimulus program. All you need to do is increase the obesity rate from one to two-thirds. In fact, in order for the economy to absorb the extra demand for food, we would have to hire lots of those unemployed construction workers to work in the procurement and distribution of foodstuffs. How many more people would Wal-Mart need in the warehouses it uses to supply its supermarkets? How many to deliver the extra food? The ripple effect of the increase in current food consumption would be enormous.
So c'mon President and First Lady Obama. Get with the program. Put American waistlines first! Remember, every pound we gain is another step towards a healthy economy.