As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food • Hacker News Board

Re: As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food

#141

Post by baddox » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 1:53 AM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #130

baddox wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was referring to a legal punishment for failing to maximize one's taxable income.

So was the parent comment. They could just help themselves to whatever they needed if the law didn't stop them. Poverty is legally enforced on people that don't earn enough.

We could certainly have arguments about the allocation of natural resources and the merits of propertarian vs. antipropertarian societies, and I've done and enjoyed a lot of that, but it's out of the scope of this particular argument. In this context, the fact that government will punish a person for taking what is considered the property of another person is not in the same class as a fine or imprisonment for choosing to reduce one's taxable income.

Re: As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food

#142

Post by rosege » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 4:28 AM UTC

olalonde wrote: post #62

TuringNYC wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does one draw the line? Hard drugs?

As an individualist, I believe competent adults should be allowed to draw their own line. But if I had to compromise, hard drugs does seem like a more reasonable line.

I've always thought there is no need for drugs to be illegal, because if they are really bad then nature provides it own penalty and if they arent bad then they shouldnt be banned anyway

Re: As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food

#143

Post by Drumlin » Tue, Feb 21, 2017, 6:48 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #138

Drumlin wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another source that you might find interesting is Mark Blyth - a lecturer from Brown Uni. He looks at these topics from a long term economic viewpoint. He has a left wing academic perspective, which clouds his conclusions though. There are lots of lectures from him on YouTube.

Thank you. I looked him up and listened to a few of his videos on YouTube.

Glad to help.

Re: As Obesity Rises, Remote Pacific Islands Plan to Abandon Junk Food

#144

Post by derefr » Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 1:42 AM UTC

coliveira wrote: post #111

finid wrote: post #15

In 2011, as a condition for joining, the World Trade Organization ordered Samoa to eliminate the ban within a year. Eliminate a policy designed for the betterment of the population! So that's one of the aims of the WTO, to promote corporate interests, even when it's bad for the general population.

This is the whole purpose of the WTO. Last year India tried to invest on the development of solar energy and was hit by the WTO, as India cannot provide subsidies to their own companies due to the globalization rules they had to accept. Now India is trying to sue back the USA due to their own national subsidies for solar power. The expected defense of the USA: "our companies are global, yours aren't".

Why not have a subsidy that applies to companies from any country willing to do X in your country, rather than only companies headquartered in your country?