Balko vs. Zincenko

(Enter Radley Balko at a bus stop reading newspaper with David Zincenko next to him.)

Balko: (mumbles) Honestly, where does the government get off trying to tell people what to eat.

Zincenko: I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear you believe that the government has no place interfering in what people eat.

Balko: Absolutely! Every person should be held responsible for his or her own health. Nowadays, people are so quick to blame everyone else for their problems, and it’s because of these people that everyone else has to suffer by having their insurance rates go up.

Zincenko: How can you blame the consumers when they don’t even know what they’re putting into their bodies? If the government forced fast-food restaurants to be more straightforward as to what they put into their food, then maybe people would be less eager to eat fast food.

Balko: People shouldn’t have to depend on others in order to find out what they’re consuming, they should take their own initiative.

Zincenko: A large percentage of the fast food consumers are teenagers who have few options as to what they should eat.

Balko: Sure and while we’re at it… (Balko’s bus arrives before he can finish his sentence, so he gets on)

Zincenko rolls eyes before walking away.

Thesis: Radley Balko makes some fair points as to why government shouldn’t interfere in what people eat, however I disagree with his thesis for various reasons. People will eat what they want regardless of what the government says, however most people are uniformed regarding to what is put into the food and beverages we consume. However, if the government imposes some type of regulation, then at the very least people will think twice about what they are consuming. Sure now we don’t want the government interfering in what we eat, but we don’t realize that having the government interfere in what we eat is a good thing. We’ll protest over the government telling us the sizes our beverages will be, but most people won’t even acknowledge that it’s the government that keeps dangerous toxins and pesticides from being used on the crops we consume. People should ultimately decide what they should consume, but there should be at least some provisions in place to protect them from themselves in the long run.