Hey Fatso

Listening to NPR on the way to the dead end job yesterday morning and I was blown away by a topic.
Vanity sizing.
This is a phenomena in this country where clothes are mislabelled to make you feel better about yourself.
In other words, a dress that was labelled Size 8 in the fifties was labelled Size 4 in the 70's and a 0 in the 21st century. Or men's pants with a 36"  waist might have been a 40" waist ten years ago.
The piece started out with the stat that according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese.
Aradhna Krishna, University of Michigan marketing professor, is quoted as saying "Because obesity has become so much of a problem, there is a greater need for vanity sizing."
Are you f***ing serious?
How about because obesity has become so much of a problem there is a greater need for exercise and self control at the dinner table.
Or to be more precise, get off your fat ass and take a walk and don't eat a donut while you're doing it.
What is it about this country that makes us so lazy, stupid and gullible?
Always looking for the easy fix even if you know intuitively that you are lying to yourself or being lied to.
In fact the question was raised to Krishna, do consumers realize they are being lied to? She responded that it's not a question of lying, but a question of do you want to be lied to?
In other words it's not really lying if you want to be lied to.
The sinister side of this is that business is on board with this concept. Obesity is bad for business. Apparently if people feel bad about themselves approaching the size of an ocean liner, they shop less. If you make the clothes bigger and label them as smaller, people will shop (spend) more.
I am not exceptionally bright but I don't think there is any consideration for health in that equation. Perhaps I am missing something.
If you follow the thread, if Americans are that easily duped into believing they are buying smaller sizes, then they probably feel skinnier and will eat more.
Pretty soon the average American will look like Jabba The Hut.
And you'll be buying 60" waist pants in the kid's section of the store.
I am somewhat concerned about this. Two years ago I weighed 190 pounds. I am five foot seven. I had an enormous gut; it's amazing I could even stand erect.
I now weigh 170 pounds and I am shooting for 165. I went from a 40" waist to a 36".
But did I?
Actually I know I did and that's the point I am trying to make.
At 190 pounds, when I looked in the mirror I was repulsed at this enormous thing I likened to a tumor that was hanging off my body. Even at 170 it is still large and repulsive but it is definitely considerably smaller.
I don't care if in reality I went from a 48" waist to a 40", or from a 40" to a 36". I know I lost weight. A lot of it and I feel much better.
If you haven't lost weight, you know it. So if you are wearing "smaller" sizes and believe you are making progress, you are an idiot.
Psychological manipulation is rampant in the fast food business as well. Portion sizes are not standardized so they can be labelled indiscriminately. A 32 ounce soda at McDonald's is called a large while the same size at Wendy's is a medium.
In addition the large soda people order today is six times the size of a large soda ordered sixty years ago.
Krishna conducted a labelling study with cookies. Consumers were given identically sized cookies, but some were labelled large and some medium.
People ate more cookies when they were labelled "medium."
I think this country is in a stupid spiral.
We ignore reality and embrace fantasy so we can justify laziness and ignorance.
In a twisted way I like the concept. Previously, I considered myself poor, or at the very best, lower middle class.
But I have changed the label, the definition, of income classes. I now believe that the money I earn from my part time dead end job puts me in the class of the super rich.
Please excuse me. I have to call Donald Trump to see if he is available for lunch.