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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:55 am Post subject: 'too fat to work' |
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Family who are 'too fat to work' say �22,000 worth of benefits is not enough
A family of four with a combined weight of 83 stone say they are "too fat to work" and need more than the �22,000 they currently receive in benefits.
Philip Chawner, 53, and his 57-year-old wife Audrey weigh 24st. Their daughter Emma, 19, weighs 17st, while her older sister Samantha, 21, weighs 18st.
The family from Blackburn claim �22,508 a year in benefits, equivalent to the take-home pay from a �30,000 salary.
The Chawners, haven't worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on.
Mr Chawner said: "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more."
The family claim to spend �50 a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
"We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner," Mrs Chawner told Closer magazine.
"All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We're fat because it's in our genes. Our whole family is overweight," she added.
Each week, Mr and Mrs Chawner, who have been married for 23 years, receive �177 in income support and incapacity benefit. Mrs Chawner is paid an extra �330-a-month disability allowance for epilepsy and asthma, both a result of being overweight.
Mr Chawner gets �71 a month after developing Type 2 diabetes because of his size. He was on a waiting list for a gastric band last year, but a heart condition made the operation unsuitable. Their daughter Samantha receives �84 in Jobseekers' Allowance each fortnight while Emma, who is training to be a hairdresser, gets �58 every two weeks under a hardship fund for low-income students.
Emma, said: "I'm a student and don't have time to exercise" she said "We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse we get in the street, but we don't know how." |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5004431/Family-who-are-too-fat-to-work-say-22000-worth-of-benefits-is-not-enough.html
When fiscal conservatives rail about a culture of entitlement and dependency that is born from a welfare state we're not making it up. |
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riverboy
Joined: 03 Jun 2003
Location: Incheon
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:06 am Post subject: |
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I really think that there should be a fat tax. Or, if they are on welfare, put them in a fat work farm and force them to work for their food while limiting their daily caloric intake with gruel. Then lets see their genes take over.
I have a bit of a gut, but morbidly obese people sicken me. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:12 am Post subject: |
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| Maybe they can get jobs and walk to work? Consume 1500 calories a day. Turn off the tv. Or just have a heart attack and die in the shower. I'm indifferent. But being fat isn't a disease. It is a function of caloric intake/expense. Consume fewer calories than you burn. It is literally grade 1 maths. |
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curiousaboutkorea
Joined: 21 Jan 2009
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:07 am Post subject: Re: 'too fat to work' |
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| "What we get barely puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more." |
Shut them off immediately and completely. Let those whales jump in the ocean and eat plankton. |
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ontheway
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Location: Somewhere under the rainbow...
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:54 am Post subject: Re: 'too fat to work' |
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| mises wrote: |
| Quote: |
Family who are 'too fat to work' say �22,000 worth of benefits is not enough
A family of four with a combined weight of 83 stone say they are "too fat to work" and need more than the �22,000 they currently receive in benefits.
Philip Chawner, 53, and his 57-year-old wife Audrey weigh 24st. Their daughter Emma, 19, weighs 17st, while her older sister Samantha, 21, weighs 18st.
The family from Blackburn claim �22,508 a year in benefits, equivalent to the take-home pay from a �30,000 salary.
The Chawners, haven't worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on.
Mr Chawner said: "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more."
The family claim to spend �50 a week on food and consume 3,000 calories each a day. The recommended maximum intake is 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.
"We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner," Mrs Chawner told Closer magazine.
"All that healthy food, like fruit and veg, is too expensive. We're fat because it's in our genes. Our whole family is overweight," she added.
Each week, Mr and Mrs Chawner, who have been married for 23 years, receive �177 in income support and incapacity benefit. Mrs Chawner is paid an extra �330-a-month disability allowance for epilepsy and asthma, both a result of being overweight.
Mr Chawner gets �71 a month after developing Type 2 diabetes because of his size. He was on a waiting list for a gastric band last year, but a heart condition made the operation unsuitable. Their daughter Samantha receives �84 in Jobseekers' Allowance each fortnight while Emma, who is training to be a hairdresser, gets �58 every two weeks under a hardship fund for low-income students.
Emma, said: "I'm a student and don't have time to exercise" she said "We all want to lose weight to stop the abuse we get in the street, but we don't know how." |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5004431/Family-who-are-too-fat-to-work-say-22000-worth-of-benefits-is-not-enough.html
When fiscal conservatives rail about a culture of entitlement and dependency that is born from a welfare state we're not making it up. |
Somewhere, far away in another universe, people are tuning in to the newest reality TV comedy show:
"Socialists of the Planet Earth"
Last edited by ontheway on Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:02 am; edited 1 time in total |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:01 am Post subject: |
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| Meanwhile, the UK is gathering steam towards bankruptcy. |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 1:58 pm Post subject: |
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| This is not the issue of Socialism, it's an issue of very bad education. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Oh yes it is. It is about the political economy which enables and nurtures such developments as this. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Juregen wrote: |
| This is not the issue of Socialism, it's an issue of very bad education. |
As in, they should have been educated to know not to talk about their parasite lard-asses to the press?
This is exactly about socialism, or more specifically a welfare state that gives people a choice (removes discomfort) of if they want to work or not. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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I gotta love the sense of entitlement here: "we're overweight, therefore other people should support us." Even if it isn't their fault that they can't work, it isn't anyone else's fault either, so why do taxpayer's have to provide financial support?
As an aside, if they really only eat 3000 calories a day, well, I'm amazed at how little activity they must be getting. My caloric intake is well over the 3000 mark, but as I exercise 6 days a week (twice a day on three of those days), I'm in really good shape. Would cutting calories a little and getting some exercise be enough for these people? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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| cdninkorea wrote: |
| if they really only eat 3000 calories a day, well, I'm amazed at how little activity they must be getting. My caloric intake is well over the 3000 mark, but as I exercise 6 days a week (twice a day on three of those days), I'm in really good shape. Would cutting calories a little and getting some exercise be enough for these people? |
I think it becomes harder to lose weight once you're that big because its harder to exert yourself. And, of course, you need the calories to heave around all that weight. |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| mises wrote: |
| Juregen wrote: |
| This is not the issue of Socialism, it's an issue of very bad education. |
As in, they should have been educated to know not to talk about their parasite lard-asses to the press?
This is exactly about socialism, or more specifically a welfare state that gives people a choice (removes discomfort) of if they want to work or not. |
| Gopher wrote: |
Oh yes it is. It is about the political economy which enables and nurtures such developments as this. |
I really beg to differ. Let me explain.
Belgium is a socialist country where people are paid basically not to work.
America on the other hand is a capitalist country, where it could be otherwise.
Belgium does not have extreme cases of Obesity, nor does it support people as such, education is an important step in keeping healthy. Wealth of a nation is not a good indicator for healthy people, education is better.
America offers cheap food, and I am assuming lower income families have very little quality education due to various reasons. Cheap food coupled with bad education induces Obesity much more then money for unemployment.
Another factor is the culture of acceptance. In how far does a culture accept Obesity. When suffering from Obesity, doctors in socialized systems will use that system to force Obese people to get healthy. In a health system based on capitalism, they will only help them if money is involved, ergo sum, Obese stay Obese cause they don''t have the money for proper health care.
America and Belgium are at par on GDP, so the availability of money is not a critical factor in Obesity. Culture, education and the health system are.
So please, shove your misunderstanding of socialism there were the sun don't shine.
I am not a socialist. I also believe that socialism has problems. But I will not blindly believe that a complex problem can be solved by addressing one type of government.
A last word, I also believe there is no more real socialism and real capitalism, those ideologies have long since disappeared in the real world. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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I disagree with such comparisons as "America vs. Belgium." Not an appropriate or useful comparison by any means. Good for scoring propaganda points, however. Otherwise, far too simplistic. For example, your "Belgium does not suffer obesity" sounds an awful lot like M. Ahmadinejad's "we have no homosexuals in Iran, unlike your country..."
In any case, America is not and has not been since FDR if not since the Progressives, a purely capitalist country. It has social-welfare programs. These sometimes differ from state to state. But I assure you it has social-welfare programs -- whether you approve of them or not, it makes no difference to me. They exist. There is much more going on in America's political economy than hidden hands and their movements. Your last sentence seems to recognize this. But then your introductory "America is capitalist" and "Belgium is socialist" becomes confused, muddled.
What exactly is your point?
Last edited by Gopher on Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:54 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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Belgium is a socialist country where people are paid basically not to work.
America on the other hand is a capitalist country, where it could be otherwise. |
Ok..
| Quote: |
| Belgium does not have extreme cases of Obesity, nor does it support people as such, education is an important step in keeping healthy. Wealth of a nation is not a good indicator for healthy people, education is better. |
Ok?
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| America offers cheap food, and I am assuming lower income families have very little quality education due to various reasons. Cheap food coupled with bad education induces Obesity much more then money for unemployment. |
Uh hu.
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| Another factor is the culture of acceptance. In how far does a culture accept Obesity. When suffering from Obesity, doctors in socialized systems will use that system to force Obese people to get healthy. In a health system based on capitalism, they will only help them if money is involved, ergo sum, Obese stay Obese cause they don''t have the money for proper health care. |
Health system based on capitalism. Alright..
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| America and Belgium are at par on GDP, so the availability of money is not a critical factor in Obesity. Culture, education and the health system are. |
Right..
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| So please, shove your misunderstanding of socialism there were the sun don't shine. |
Done.
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| A last word, I also believe there is no more real socialism and real capitalism, those ideologies have long since disappeared in the real world. |
To summarize, you believe the UK is in the United States and that the NHS is a system based upon capitalism. |
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