A obesidade faz aumentar o PIB

"When I'm in Europe, I rarely come across multitudes of fat and obese people. Sometimes, I can walk an entire day without encountering a single overweight person. In America,by contrast, it seems everyone is grossly overweight and, even more shocking, unaware or unconcerned about their appearance.", pag. 74-75

"The GDP and nation's health intersects in many interesting ways that are seldom discussed by economists. For example, obesity in U.S. has now reached epidemic proportions, with more than 30% of all Americans now considered chronically obese. (...) Much of the growth in girth is attributable to junk food and a snacking culture promoted in the U.S. and now being exported (...) In E.U. countries the percentage of people obese is 11.3%. The more obese the American population, the bigger the GDP. (...) The margins on fast foods, junk foods and processed foods are much higher than unprepared, unprocessed, raw foods. All of this jacks up the GDP still further. And then there are medical costs. The World Health Organization estimates that obesity alone increases health-care by as much as 7% in some countries. So the U.S. GDP continues to expand along with our waistlines, but our quality of life continues to diminish.", pag. 80-81
"The European Dream", Jeremy Rifkin, Polity, 2004.

Durante as minhas viagens aos EUA reparei na chocante realidade descrita por Rifkin. Muito antes de ler o seu livro tinha ficado com a sensação de que as empresas americanas tinham conseguido transformar com sucesso o povo americano em máquinas de consumir. As pessoas pareciam pesar uma vez e meia o peso dos Europeus, na altura em jeito de gozo lembrei-me que aquilo deveria ter influência no PIB, mal sabia eu que Rifkin andava a escrever sobre o mesmo. No entanto, quero deixar bem claro que não defendo ideais de beleza de capas de revistas de moda, existem obesa(o)s bonita(o)s, mas quando deparamos com uma epidemia de obesidade como nos EUA, garanto-vos que não é nada bonito.
Mais sobre "The European Dream" de Jeremy Rifkin.