Letter: Health police
To the editor:
Since our state and federal tax dollars — through Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — will now be used to maintain the national health (and security) of our country, I would urge all of you to become proactive in promoting healthy lifestyles. Write your congressmen and senators. Ask — no, DEMAND — that they sponsor legislation to mandate that when someone buys groceries or gas, they input their Social Security number. In doing so, we can build a database of those who are either purchasing sugars and fats beyond a healthy BMI, or befouling our air with carbon dioxide (a known, and well-documented, killer).
Furthermore, Facebook should avail itself to the federal government with its facial recognition software. That way, when one citizen sees another citizen exhibiting a behavior that is costly to society, then he can take a picture of the offender with his smart phone and upload it to a national database. By doing this, federal officials could take action to prevent or intervene in some way to stop such anti-social, and costly, behavior.