A Sacrificial Society

We all know what kind of damage your body can receive from being obese: Obesity is associated with the development of osteoarthritis of the hand, hip, back, and knees. It increases the risk of breast cancer in men and women. Obesity is the most common factor of nonalcoholic steatophepatitis, a major cause of liver disease. Those are just a few harmful effects obesity can cause but ever wonder what obesity can do as a whole to the society you live in? In other words, what will happen to society if obesity keeps spreading? Well if obesity keeps spreading, the cost of health care will become more and more expensive because it cost more to treat people with an obesity problem. Health care costs that average about 40 percent above those for normal weight individuals. Treating a person with an obesity problem cost more than 40 percent above the cost of a normal weight individual. Altogether, obesity-related economic costs are well over $100 billion dollars annually and are still expected to grow and exceed that cost. Not only that, but obese workers tend to bring in less money to the down-spiraling economy. Obese workers tend to miss more days of work compared to the average worker and tend to cost the company more money with compensation, medical, and disability claims. More than 1,000 employees cost employers about $285,000 per year in extra costs due to obesity and even with these effects already taken place, according to the article, the effects of the obesity trend that began in the 1980s are still not yet fully apparent.



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