I’m actually surprised at how much Bloomberg has done for the public health sector of New York City. Before reading these articles, I had no idea that Bloomberg made New York City one of the first cities to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Not to mention that he brought an end to restaurant’s use of trans-fats, enforcing the posting of the calories of goods, and reducing salt consumption. Bloomberg is trying to improve public health, which would result in reducing the obesity rate, increasing lifespans, and a healthier New York in general. It’s shocking that people are actually against some of these policies, especially the people in Mississippi who could use them the most with their massive obesity rate of about 35%! It’s as if these people are saying I rather die a couple of years early so that I can have my Big Mac from McDonalds, it’s ridiculous.
However, there is a fine line between enacting policies that will benefit the public health and laws that will limit the choices and freedoms of the individual. I have to admit that the soda ban was taking things a little too far. As much as I agree with Bloomberg that people should be drinking less soda, he can’t just deem that soda is bad and take it away otherwise he is no better than a dictator. If people want to drink soda, let them. None of Bloomberg’s previous policies stop the individual from partaking in the unhealthy activity, all they did was prevent others from suffering from said activities (such as the ban for smoking in restaurants), and improving awareness (the calories postings). Also, decreasing the cup sizes would just make people buy more servings of the soda anyways, which accomplishes nothing.
Enacting policies that improve public health, without appearing to be a dictator, is good for New York City. The only bit of advice I would suggest is to obtain scientific confirmation from research that the policy will in fact improve the health of our citizens before putting the policy into effect. Otherwise, I have no problem with Bloomberg being our “Health Crusader.”
