If elected, Barack Obama plans to socialize healthcare. This scares the hell out of me for a very practical reason.
Mine is a generation where obesity became popular around the same time as form fitting pants, hiked up thongs, and low-cut shirts. Aside from the visual difficulties that presents, I fear my taxes will soon go to curing the innumerable cases of heart disease and triple-bypass surgeries this generation will incur.
The only plus side of this might be that I will outlive my peers and be among the few able to collect social security checks. That presupposes that social security will survive that long.
Leading a healthy lifestyle isn’t a diet that completely slices out a food group (Atkins), pills that force the body to piss out water weight (Diuretics), or total abstinence from ingesting or digesting (Anorexia/Bulimia) food. Likewise, it isn’t running a half marathon and celebrating by eating a whole cake. A healthy diet must be coupled with, not substituted by, exercise and vise versa.
And now for something completely different . . .
Considering our limping economy, it becomes just as important to tighten our purse strings, as our belts. There are small ways to save money before sending spare jewelry to pirate programs like Cash4Gold or self-defenestrating to an untimely death.
Take advantage of the free things campus offers. Many religious organizations provide free lunches at noon on Wednesdays. The more free meals, shirts, chairs, or scantrons you find, the fewer you’ll have to pay for.
When you are eventually forced to exchange money for goods or services, do it on the cheap. The difference between Walmart bread and the upscale “Mrs. Baird’s” may only be a dollar or so, but it adds up. Most price tags include a “cost per ounce.” The lower that number is, the more you’re getting for your money.
My final point is an attack on fashion. Rather than dropping top dollar on Coach sandals or the new metrosexual-boots, buy durable walking shoes. Get a bicycle before buying a superfluous sound system or iPod Touch.
Carpooling, riding a bike, or walking to campus does more than solve the parking problem. It will save gas and time spent shuffling through the racks at Express looking for something that “fits.”
I haven’t earned, nor am I working towards, a Bachelor’s of Science in Economics or Health. The aforementioned advice is more pragmatic than scientific.
Likewise, my political sentience is barely great enough to personally decide whom to vote for, much less espouse my opinion to my peers. I offer these last three bits of advice.
Get out and vote.
Get out and jog.
Get out of McDonald’s.