I'll subsidise fatties when pigs fly | Opinion | News.com.au
I'll subsidise fatties when pigs fly
By John Rolfe
The Daily Telegraph
November 29, 2008 04:36am
WHY should I have to pay for my excess luggage when fatties don't have to?
Last week a Canadian court ruled fat people have the right to two seats on a plane for the price of one.
Sorry, they're not "fat people". They are, according to one airline, "customers of size".
And today we publish the results of a travel website survey that shows a majority of Australians disagree with the ruling. Most think fatties should have to buy that second seat.
I say we must go further.
All plane passengers should be weighed at check-in, otherwise the obesity crisis will inevitably lead to over-burdened flights falling from the sky.
Checking into a Sydney-London flight in 2005 I was forced to fork over $320 for having 8kg more in my bags than the "limit".
As the Qantas staff member processed the payment I looked at the line behind me. Fattie. Fattie. Bill Bryson. Fattie.
My cash was covering those cows in the queue. Why is it that bags are the only things airlines weigh?
Political correctness.
I weighed 70kg (and still do). Add 8kg excess luggage plus the 20kg allowed. That's a total of 98kg.
Some people on that flight weighed 130kg. Add 20kg of luggage and they're more than 50 per cent heavier than me and mine.
Yet I paid more.
Airlines need to introduce the same system for passengers as the horse-racing industry has for jockeys.
Get on the scales with your saddle bags. If you can't make the weight you're off - or you'll have to buy the seat beside you.
And the other side, come to think of it - it's completely unfair for people like me to be deep-fried peanut-butter sandwiched to the wall for 14 hours.
Before I get strung up outside a KFC, I should make it clear that I don't really believe in weigh-ins and check-ins.
Because while some people are unnecessarily heavy, others are just bigger than me. Where would it end? Skin-fold tests?
That said, when will we stop making excuses for people who are too fat? It's bad for them and it costs the community a bomb in related healthcare costs.
Access Economics recently estimated the fat epidemic bill at $58 billion.
Reality must bite, so to speak, some time soon.
Interestingly, the travel.com.au survey of attitudes towards obese travellers found NSW to be most tolerant.
There are two explanations for this.
The first is that people have a finite amount of displeasure to direct at others, and that our State Labor Government has sopped up pretty much all of it up like a piece of bread in dripping.
The second explanation is the stones-in-glasshouses argument: We have more fat people than other states. About 600,000 more, according to census figures. There are so many fat people in NSW that only a minority want "customers of size" to have to pay for that second seat.
Now that's food for thought.
