Think about this for a second:
By definition, one is considered "obese" if one is 20 pounds over one's ideal weight. According to the Center for Disease Control, 30% of Americans are obese.
To put this into perspective, the US population now exceeds 300 million people. That means there are 90 million obese Americans ... and about 7 million obese illegal aliens!
Oh sure, it's sad that our population is fat and getting fatter every year, and it's too bad everyone can't exhibit the will power of a tri-athlete, but let's look beyond this finger-pointing and get down to the real guts of the issue: Obese people are a very large demographic; therefore, there's a LOT of money to be made exploiting them!
Here's an example.
A typical casket is 28 inches wide, but a company named Goliath Caskets (the name kind of says it all, doesn't it?), provides over-sized caskets for large (ie: obese) people. These caskets range in size from 29" wide ("Harvest Style" - only slightly larger than normal), to 33"-35" wide ("Heartland Style"), to the grand poobah of hugeness, the "Homestead Style" which increases all the way to 52 inches wide.
The average person is 18" wide, so you could practically lay out three average people side-by-side in a Homestead (which is the width of a full size bed).
The owners of Goliath Caskets, and their competitors are brilliant. Shockingly, obese people tend to die, just like the rest of us, but until now, their families have been forced to bury them in piano cases, or used Hyundais. Now, they can enjoy the same morbidly arcane send-off as the other 70% of the population. Oh sure, they'll probably require more than the standard half-dozen pall bearers, but fat people are jolly, so they probably have plenty of friends who would be willing to help.
Clearly, there's serious cash to be made from a 90 million-person group.
The 2010 study of "The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market" estimates the diet industry consumes nearly $80 billion per year. That's the equivalent of 22.4 billion Big Macs, or 248 Big Macs for every obese person - about one every day-and-a-half!
Along those lines, can you imagine 22.4 billion Big Macs being sold per year? Well, guess what, McDonald's actually sells FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION Big Macs per year (or about 6 Big Macs per obese person per year), producing gross sales of nearly $2 billion. Of course, not all these Big Macs are sold in the US. A few dozen per year are probably sold in other places, like France, or Canada.
We're all griping and moaning about the economy, and we're wondering what's going to pull us out of these doldrums. Financiers and economists point to Federal bail-outs, banking reform and technological advances as the necessary catalysts to rescue us. I disagree.
All we need to do is focus on fat people. Give them what they want, because clearly, they are consumers. Produce and sell more fattening foods. Convince them they need to lose weight and push the pills, foods, and equipment necessary to help them accomplish these goals, and then prepare for their failure by making everything in full sizes - clothes, chairs, doorways, elevators, etc. Ultimately, standard sized items will need to be replaced in wholesale fashion, and the resultant retrofitting of America will spur on EVERY industry.
Back in the 80s, there was Reaganomics which was basically the theory that an increased availability of money for investment will increase productivity, economic activity, and income throughout the economic system. Today, I'm proposing we adopt a new term: "Chubbynomics."
If all the chubbies out there start spending more, more money will be funneled into the economy which will spur on the entire economic system. As for me, I'm doing my part. I had a Sausage McMuffin with Egg for breakfast, and placed my order for a "Heartland" this afternoon!
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