The degree of over-weightiness and obesity in the U.S. will create an economic and social crisis.

1 Running head: The social and economic crisis debate

2 The social and economic crisis debate

The social and economic crisis debate

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The degree of overweightness and obesity in the U.S. will create an economic and social crisis. I am confident and enthusiastic when I say this. Over the past decade, the prevalence of obesity in the United States of America has doubled. More than a third (34.9%) of American adults is suffering from obesity (Flegal,et.al,2010). Obesity comes along with many disadvantages which affect both the economic and social lives of the affected. If America does not control the level of obesity facing it is going to fall in a serious social and economic crisis.

To begin with obesity is associated with many chronic illnesses. These include diabetes, hypertension, stroke, a certain type of cancer, asthma and arthritis to name but a few. According to research it is estimated that around 60% of the diabetic cases that exist are due to weight gain, while around 80% of all the heart conditions are associated with obesity. This means that more than a third of the adults living in America are under the risk of suffering from chronic illnesses resulting from underweight. More than 50% chances are that these adults will be affected by the chronic diseases arising from obesity. This comes with numerous costs to manage and treat the people affected by these chronic diseases, resulting from obesity (Bhattacharya et.al, 2011).

When majority of the adults become affected by chronic diseases resulting from obesity, it simply means that the industrial productivity of that nation is at stake. This is mainly affected in several major ways which include absenteeism of the workers from workplace. This is because most of these people will be spending most of their time in hospital trying to manage the conditions that they are already suffering from. Others may end up suffering disabilities due to the diseases. For instance individuals may end up getting a stroke and therefore not able to be as productive as they were initially prior to getting such disabilities. Worse still, some may even end up dying prematurely, even before they reach their retirement age. Obese individuals incur a cost in the companies/institutions they are working for because they have to be given sick offs due to their sickly conditions. Moreover, the institutions they are working for have to bear the insurance costs of managing the diseases of their employee, in addition to paying the employee despite the many hours spend in hospital rather than at their workplace. This makes the productivity of the company/firm/institution be less. It makes the cost of production higher than the profit made(Bhattacharya et.al, 2011).

Additionally ones an individual suffers from a chronic illness such as hypertension or diabetes, they tend to divert their priorities. Rather than focusing on what can lead to a better social and economic development, they tend to focus more on managing the disease and their condition. Most of the family incomes and savings are diverted to pay hospital bills and buy medications for the patient. This means that the social-economic life of such a family tends to depreciate rather than appreciate. Once the social economic status of a single family goes down the curve, it affects the economy of the nation directly in a downward curve(Mokdad et.al, 2011).

Moreover, obesity can cause a major population drop within a nation. This is because it is a major cause of infertility especially amongst women. Obesity interferes with the hormonal production in women and causes the production of testosterone which contributes o infertility in women. This means that if majority of the American citizens are obese, then the probability of them being infertile are higher. On the other obesity leads to life threating diseases, and high mortalities amongst individuals suffering from chronic diseases. For instance diabetes and stroke lead to many deaths due to complications arising from these diseases. After balancing the equation, it is clear that where there is mortality without reproduction there is a population decline. Once the population declines, then evidently the productivity of that nation tends to lag behind, and hence the economic ability of such a nation is affected in a negative way. And socially, the nation tends to be less powerful in the society (Gortmaker et.al, 2010).

Other than obesity causing the nation to be less productive, it incurs direct cost as the government try to manage the condition. For instance, the amount of money estimated to be spending annually on the medical cost of obesity in America is approximately $147 billion. This is a huge amount of money which can be invested in other productive government projects rather than on just managing a disease and buying medications. Moreover, the American government has promised to subsidies the cost of healthy foods in order to make it affordable in the society and reduce obesity. This means that the government has to reduce the taxes on such products and the Levis on the equipment used to produce the food products. This means that the government will not be making any economic profits from farming which is a key sector within the continent. This affects the economy in a negative way directly.

Other than the above mentioned economic impacts of obesity, it is evident that obesity can increase the fuel expenditure of a nation. This is because an increase in body weight amongst Americans may lead to the demand for bigger vehicles to accommodate the transport the same number of people who could be transported in smaller vehicles within a year. Other than leading to increased usage of fuel, it may also lead to higher greenhouse gas emission.

According to Dannenberg (2004), between the year 1990 and the year 2000, there was a notable increase in the amount of money spent on fuel used by airline passengers, due to an increase in the prevalence in obesity. In the year 2000 alone, approximately $275 million extra money was spent on airlines due to the increase in obese passengers.

Finally obesity has a negative impact on the human capital accumulation. Obesity slows the learning ability of a student. According to Sabia (2007), there is a directly inverse relationship between obesity and the ability to learn/ acquire knowledge. According to a research he carried out, he found out that students who did not have obesity had a higher i.q than those who had a normal Body mass index. This is partly due to the fact that students who have a normal body mass index tend to have a high self-esteem the opposite of those who are obese. Obese students tend to have a low self-esteem and hence the inability to learn quickly. This means that these individuals become even less productive in the society in the latter life, due to their lagging thinking. This affects their social as well as their economic lives as well as the economy of the nation.

In summary

As discussed, obesity has many negative impacts in the economy and social life of a nation. America has an increasingly high prevalence of obesity over the past decade. The main impacts of obesity are high incidence of chronic illnesses associated with obesity, substantial medical costs associated with the high incidence of obesity related diseases, reduced national productivity, increased national productivity, population decrees, transport cost and human capital accumulation. It also affects the self-esteem of individuals as well as the individual’s ability to be productive and upgrade their personal social status in the society.

Reference

Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Ogden CL, et al. Prevalence and trends in US obesity among adults, 1999–2008. JAMA. 2010;303(3):235–241.

Mokdad AH, Ford ES, Bowman BA, et al. Prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk factors. JAMA. 2011;289(1):76–79.

Bhattacharya B, Bundorf MK. The incidence of the healthcare costs of obesity. J Health Econ. 2009;28(3):649–658.

Gortmaker SL, Must A, Perrin JM, Sobol AM, Dietz W. Social and economic consequences of overweight in adolescence and young adult-hood. N Eng J Med. 1993;329(14):1008–1012.

Dannenberg A, Burton D, Jackson R. Economic and environmental costs of obesity: the impact on airlines. Am J Prevent Med. 2004;27(3):264

Sabia JJ. The effect of body weight on adolescent academic performance. Southern Econ J. 2007;73(4):871–900.