The article criticize the advertising and sales of junk-food at schools. They want the government to enforce a law, that prohibits the sales of junk-food at school.
American children are suffering to a lot of marketing-related diseases, of which obesity and diabetes are two of them. There is enough evidence that junk-food is harming children’s health.
In my opinion the manufacturers are acting morally wrong. Because, they are really harming those kids for their self-interest. They are also harming the whole society. This because, if you look to the prosperity of a society on the long-term, diseases has a negative effect on it. Negative, because the costs of treatment for those diseases shall be high. Some diseases shall made it impossible for people to work and even to study.
Another point is, that children on schools can’t ignore advertisement. Advertisers call it, “ captive audience ” because, children cannot change the channel or walk away from an advertisement. My opinion about this is, that it isn’t advertisement anymore but propaganda. Especially if young children are the audience. This has an affect on those children, even if they become adults. Aren’t they indirectly manipulated to chose the products of the junk-food manufacturers? Doesn’t this mean, that their freedom of choosing is infringed by the manufacturers?
The problem is, that the manufacturers are not infringing any law. Because of that, it is the task of the government to enforce a law to prevent junk-food sales to young children.
By doing this, they can ensure the health and prosperity of their future and society. If the government doesn’t enter such a law, the government is acting morally wrong, because they don’t ensure the health and prosperity of the society. .
Background article
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
s477986
I do agree with the author to a certain extent - junk food indeed should be eliminated from the schools. However, the question that I would like to raise is whether it is going to solve the problem of obesity? The children might not get the junk food at school, but it probably takes them 15 minutes to get to the nearest junk food selling point. I think it is much more parent responsibility to make sure that their kids are following healthy diet. It is not necessarily that junk food should be fully omitted but it can be diminished. Furthermore, governments can participate by promoting healthy diet by, for example, giving a subject at school that would teach children how to eat healthy, or they can raise the public awareness in these issues by advertising campaigns.
I agree with 477986 about the role of the government. They could also introduce a sort of fat-tax for products which are unhealthy to stimulate people from eating it. I do not think the fast-food companies act morally wrong. They are simply doing their business and it are the consumers who keeps the business alive. If healthy food creates more profits than they will automatically produce healthy foods. However,obviously we prefer junk food over healthy food and this gives companies their existence.
s888110
s279459
This is a clear example of a morally hard case. The question in this case could be: Is it morally wrong for the government of the U.S. not to create a law that prevents promoting junk food to children, looking at the fact that this law could prevent harm amongst children´s health, but taking into account that this law could cause companies to lose sales and consequently go bankrupt? I would use the utilitarianism theory to solve this MHC. To achieve overall utility, the law should not be created, as it will cause companies to lose sales. As Kitja said, the government could promote healthy eating instead of enforcing a law to prevent companies to sell their products.
S279459
I agree with the other comments. From another point of view, I think that schools act morally wrong by selling junk food in their canteen. They know that junk food sells better than more healthy or healthy food like all kind of fruits and salads. So, according to me, schools act morally wrong by selling junk food to generate more income, profits, with selling the wrong kind of product in their canteen.
Post a Comment