“The pound of flesh which I demand..”
We at the Sagamore Journal occasionally find it prudent to gather up some of the many gems we’ve sown and bring them together with a overarching point, valid or not.
As an example, take three previous subjects at random. Let’s say crude oil prices, fat people and the feckless TSA. Now observe:
Runaway jet fuel prices have prompted airlines to evaluate cost-cutting measures. Alaska Airlines recently discovered it could save $10,000/year on fuel simply by removing five magazines per aircraft. What’s more, the company got itself new beverage carts, which – at 20 lb lighter than the old ones – could save upwards of $500,000/year in fuel costs.
Ho ho, now – are we to understand that by cutting a few pounds here and there, air travel could be cheaper? Do you see where I am going with this?
It’s high time the transport of human flesh was conducted on the same basis as any other cargo. You pay by the pound. If you exceed a certain weight or dimension, perhaps you pay double (i.e.: an extra seat). They do it for our luggage already, yes? That’s because of weight and passenger travel should be the same.
I see no reason why the dietary habits or genetic makeup of an obese traveller should cause me to pay extra for a less comfortable airplane ride. The trip itself is what our money pays for; arrival is the assumed and hoped for result. Remember that.
My modest proposal offers greater justice than this current notion that everyone should suffer for the gluttony of a few. It’s not true for differently sized cars at the gas pump and it shouldn’t be true for differently sized people in air travel.
We live not in a socialist commune as the ill-begot TSA would have you believe. This is a cut-throat capitalist machine, for better or worse.
He who chooses to move his 300-pound bulk across the skies should do so at greater personal cost than one who wishes to transport only 150lbs of flesh and bone. That’s economics.
I, naturally, agree.
The accommodations made for fat people are straight out of the socialist handbook.
The Bruce has been up to his neck The Strenuous Life lately and today, to his horror discovered that the only wheelchairs available at the hospital are “double wides” made especially large for fatties.
Think of the additional cost to our health care system from over sized wheelchairs alone. And liberals want me to pay for this and other, more serious costs in my taxes! It is not my fault you are fat. I should not have to pay for your health care.
The Bruce
April 9, 2008 at 9:48 pm
As a morbidly obese individual I stongly oppose this proposed policy as it is an act of discrimination and would provide momentum to the disturbing growth of the cacomorphobia in our society. We are people just like you damnit and we deserve to be treated equally. You are uncomfortable on the plane, huh? Did you ever think of how the American culture constantly promoting skinny bastards makes me feel insecure about myself and drives me to eat even more. You people are as much the problem as we are.
If anything big bodied people have less money than skinny people. In some cultures corpulence may be a sign of wealth and power, but it is not the case for us big-boned Americans. We spend all of our money buying food to satiate our voracious appetites and then pay for the newest diet fads so that we can try to lose the weight gained by binging. It is a never ending cycle that continously syphons our income down the drain.
I’ll see you in the third circle of hell!!!
fryertuck
April 22, 2008 at 6:51 am
I think fryertuck makes a good point, fat people apparently want to be treated equally. However, I suspect you’ll find yourself hard-pressed to convince physics that different masses should take the same amount of energy to move. Nature, you see, doesn’t espouse bleeding-heart socialism in its principles.
But fair enough, equality you shall have. You know, of course, this means equal food portions, equal space available for your bulk… if the “big-boned” can abide by this standard of equality then they can enjoy it.
Otherwise, the second your rolls cross into my seat you are violating my rights to civil equality. Still, I am not unreasonable. I will offer to sell you the space you’re already stealing from me. Pay up.
see how making choices works?
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April 22, 2008 at 6:37 pm
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