this is one of the really negative outcomes of the farm bill: it has encouraged the overproduction of high fructose corn syrup which is found in absolutely every product. check your labels and refuse to buy anything that has (in the US) this ingredient.
not that sugar is good, but at least it is not subsidized to the extent corn is. in other words, the govt has been paying the agribusiness guys good money to make americans fat!
and then the govt pays doctors much more to neglect diabetes-prone people until they need to have limbs cut off and stuff. a doctor who puts a person on a low-carb and low-calorie diet to prevent diabetes gets nothing; but if he amputates their diabetes-wrecked limbs, be makes a good bit of money. talk of perverse incentives.
mark my words, the healthcare timebomb (what is it, 16% of GDP?) is an even bigger problem for the us than the subprime crisis. americans spend huge amounts of money to get crummy healthcare results.
the funny thing is india is following straight down that disastrous path of high insurance cover, high prices charged by hospitals because people don't care since they have insurance, therefore high premia charged to employers by insurers, which makes employers (eg. general motors) uncompetitive -- and so on. the cycle is already visible in kerala.
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