blaming the victim

[firecat]

Someone on FB linked to a post from the blog You Need a Budget (YNAB) (which is a software product). The post is called "15 warning signs you're addicted to debt" and it references Debtors Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous. The post said this:
"Whenever I see an overweight person, I automatically assume they’re seriously in debt. Probably just a case of projection – but probably not far from true."

(I'm not linking to the blog but with that info you can probably find the post.)

My thought on the matter:

In fact the person might be right that fat people are more often in debt simply because fatness is associated with poverty, and if you're poor it's a lot harder to stay out of debt because you don't have the resources to deal with emergencies.

There is another connection between debt and fat: both are assumed to be caused by the behaviors of the individual and are assumed to be the sole responsibility of the individual to fix. But both actually have a lot to do with what the individual was handed in life—in the case of fat, genetics and the pressure to yo-yo diet can contribute; in the case of debt, socioeconomic status, and a society that increasingly preys on poor people and conspires to keep them in debt. (See http://strikedebt.org)

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Whoever wrote that doesn't realize that what sie would call a "healthy diet" is EXPEN$IVE. As someone I used to know once said, "When you have $3 to buy groceries for the week, and that will buy 1 pound of meat or 15 pounds of potatoes, you eat a lot of potatoes." Starchy, high-carb diets are associated with both fatness (because they encourage it) and poverty (because those foods are the cheapest).

AKA "correlation is not causation" -- in this case, because there's a third factor operating.

firecat

[firecat]

Yes, Ellyn Satter's instrumental food pyramid: "Enough food" must be achieved before "instrumental food" can be a focus.

http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/08/10/satters-hierarchy-of-food-needs/

And the third factor is not "lack of self-discipline," like the writer seems to believe.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

And healthy exercise takes money too. Time off work, gym or access to healthy outdoor area, even time/space for exercises in home, etc.