Quote Originally Posted by Crankin View Post
While I don't think this has anything to do with politics, I can already hear the people screaming that this would be "too much big government." Sorry, but I just saw the news tape of the protest in DC yesterday. I would like to ask those people what they would do if they lost their job and then got sick...
And the kicker is that a lot of the stuff being discussed here doesn't even have to (and often shouldn't) be done by the government! Sure, things like changing the infrastructure and agricultural policies will require government intervention, but incentives for healthy habits can be provided by employers and insurance companies. Education about exercise (including safe cycling), healthy eating and as Medianox said, about what good health is and how the body works can be carried out by other organizations and individual health workers (I happen to be a nurse as well, and working on becoming a nurse practitioner). For example, churches could (and some do) have parish nurses whose role includes educating and providing information about health topics; I am trying to work on getting something like that started in my church since we have a good number of nurses. Cyclists in a community could get together and do a presentation on utility cycling and road safety in a place like a YMCA or community center. Grassroots activities have a lot of potential to help this situation.