As if California doesn’t already have enough problems it needs to deal with, a Santa Clara County supervisor, Ken Yeager wants to prohibit restaurants from offering toys with children’s meal. He proposes that meals with high concentrations of sugar, salt, and fat should not be coupled with a toy or any sort of gratifying incentive. The Los Angeles Times quotes Yeager as saying, "But we now know that 70% of the kids that are overweight or obese will be overweight or obese as adults. Why would we want to burden anybody with a lifetime of chronic illness?" I’m a little confused by his statement. Is it the toy or the food that makes kids fat?
I have a beef (pun intended) with Yeager’s proposal. Well, actually a few beefs. First, the toy isn’t the problem. The unhealthy food is the problem. While the toys are typically crappy and often of poor taste, they aren’t causing obesity, diabetes, hypertension, or heart failure. They usually only cause headaches because of the obnoxious noises they make and siblings arguing over whose toy is best. If Yeager wants to stop these restaurants from attracting young children, he should start by banning their commercials during Saturday morning cartoons and on channels such as Disney, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network. Also most of the children who are enjoying their Happy Meals didn’t drive themselves to the fast food restaurant. Many of them probably can’t even see over the counter, much less read the menu. If Yeager plans to stop children from eating unhealthy fast food, he should go after their parents, grandparents, and babysitters who take them to such places and let them eat such things. On top of this, if the child is old enough to order for him or herself, then he or she is old enough to exhibit self-control and personal responsibility. Parents should be instilling healthy traits into their children so that, when they are faced with such choices, the children are disciplined enough to make the best or, in this case, the healthiest choice—even if the parents aren’t there to hold the child’s hand and order for him or her.
Once Yeager starts, when will he stop? If this proposal is passed, who’s to say that he won’t try to ban children’s menus with fun puzzles and pictures to color or the crayons that come with them? After all, these restaurants offer unhealthy food, too. Why is the government so busy making decisions that should be left up to the parents? What’s next? Will Yeager propose mandatory time-out for a child if his or her parent sends an unhealthy lunch to daycare? If a parent wants to have a fat kid, who cares? They’re the ones who will pay the medical bills, not us. Oh wait! I forgot. I will be paying for everyone else’s doctor visits because I’m a taxpayer and, well, the President says I have to. Well, gee whiz.
If the county officials pass Yeager’s proposal to ban toys in fast food restaurants within their district, you can bet your bottom dollar…well, maybe you shouldn’t bet a dollar because you can use that to buy something unhealthy on a value menu…you can bet your child’s crappy Happy Meal toy that it will open the door for the same thing to happen on the state and, eventually, the federal level. Once that happens, the floodgates will open to more regulations, legislation, and laws regarding what you can and cannot eat or what you can and cannot feed to your children.
Oh, one last thing. What do you think it's going to cost Santa Rosa county (let me remind you it's located in the already bankrupt California) to promote and enforce this? Do I sense a tax increase?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-happy-meals-20100427,0,6290206.story?page=1
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