Washington — How did the Prohibitionists take the news? I am
thinking of the Prohibitionists, who are patrolling our diets and
lifestyles always with their loyal servitors, the trial lawyers, at
their side. The news I have in mind is that George W. Bush, arch
typical middle-aged Americano, has just passed his physical with
glowing marks. His heart rate is that of a varsity athlete, 44
beats a minute. He runs seven-minute miles. His total cholesterol
level is 177, considered in the “desirable” range. His body fat is
14.5 percent. He achieved all this without benefit of the
Prohibitionists, and despite an occasional cigar.
The vigorous President has taken personal responsibility for his
diet and his lifestyle. He did not need the Prohibitionists’
remonstrances. He once drank too much. Without benefit of the
Prohibitionists he cut out the booze and picked up the personal
training regimen. The consequence is that he is fit, beyond the
dreams of any Prohibitionist or trial lawyer ever heard of. Yet
these congenital snoops tell us that there is the Other America. It
is a land where “obesity in children has tripled in the past twenty
years. A staggering 50 percent of adolescents in some minority
populations are overweight….Heart attacks may become a
disease of young adults.” That is how two health busybodies from
Yale University and Harvard Medical School put it in the
Washington Post last June.
Their solution is to hound the food industry. They want it to
cut back its government lobbying, its advertisements to children,
and its distribution of foods they deem unwholesome. The “food
industry,” they warn, “spends an estimated $10 billion to influence
the eating behavior of children.” So now here come the
Prohibitionists after fast food or “junk food,” and this is but the
latest assault on American industry and private citizens. The
campaign will get worse. In New York City last month lawyer Samuel
Hirsch filed a class-action lawsuit against McDonald’s, Burger
King, Wendy’s, and KFC Corporation, claiming his client became
obese and ill because of the delicious products of these profitable
corporations.
The scenario is precisely the same that was followed in pursuing
the tobacco industry. Those who predicted that these
Prohibitionists’ campaigns would spread from campaigns against
tobacco to campaigns against other industries have been vindicated.
Now it is the fast food industry that will be depicted as
unscrupulous in its advertising and its health claims. Its
executives will be called before government bodies. Company
documents will be scrutinized and the industry demonized, which is
not that difficult. Is there an industry in the land that does not
have critics insisting that the industry is up to no good?
There will also be the public statements of the woebegone of
this Other America. The trial lawyers and Prohibitionists will come
up with such sad sacks as Caesar Barber. He is the complainant in
Hirsch’s suit. He says of his numerous health problems, “I trace it
all back to the high fat, grease and salt, all back to McDonald’s
Wendy’s, Burger King.”
Allow me to recommend to Mr. Barber the splendid figure of Our
President. He is precisely Barber’s age, 56. He took stock of his
health a decade or so back and did not need lawyers or
Prohibitionists to tell him what was necessary. He demonstrated
personal responsibility and he is now in the pink. He did not need
more government regulation and higher excise taxes to direct him
towards a better diet and towards exercise. Yet more government
regulation and taxation are what the Prohibitionists demand.
Ironically the result will be not be a leaner America, but a more
corrupt American, if the tobacco scenario taught us anything.
Regulated industries are always subject to the corrupt practices
of pressure groups. Substances burdened with high excise taxes are
always subject to bootleggers. Given the disparity of onerous taxes
on tobacco among the states and municipalities organized crime is
now extending its grip on tobacco sales. Just as the
Prohibitionists of the 1920s were the Mafia’s best friend, history
is repeating itself today as the Prohibitionists’ taxes on tobacco
widen the opportunities for Mafia bootleggers to take over tobacco
distribution. When the states start imposing more regulation and
taxes on junk food the opportunities for corruption will
multiply.
Yet, as the robust George W. Bush demonstrates, if we take
personal responsibility for our diet we will not need the
Prohibitionists, the trial lawyers, and now — as I hope I have
demonstrated — another of their allies, the Mafia.
