John Lounsbury

Gift This Book: The Return of Depression Economics, by Paul Krugman

I appreciate the good book review. More book reviews on Seeking Alpha would be welcome.

Excellent comment stream. A new factoid I have picked up over the week-end is that the Peterson Foundation has estimated that the National Debt is passing the collective net worth of all U.S. citizens. This relates to the appropriate comments relating to consumerism.

carey_jim, we need better nutrition in this country, but I agree with your contention (implied) that legislating vegetable consumption would be undesirable. I would maintain it would also be ineffective. How successful was prohibition? How successful is the "War on Drugs"?

The nutrition problem can only be addressed if people like to eat well. We have a society that lives on fast food with a lot of cheap, empty calories. Many cases of obesity are abetted, not only by the low cost of the "wrong" foods, but by the acquired taste for them.

Part of the problem is the government subsidy programs that support the growing of such things as sugar, corn and soybeans, but do nothing comparable for grains, fruits and vegetables. That has reinforced the cost advantage of the wrong foods. Most schools, running under a budget gun, overuse the cheap food option, conditioning our children to follow the path to poor diet.

The problem should be addressed by figuring out a way to encourage (but not require) good diet. One way to start is to remove government subsidies for the "bad guys". Another way is to support good nutrition at the school lunch counter. There are probably many more suggestions, and I hope other commenters may have some ideas to offer.

I will conclude with a bad pun: We will get a lot farther in addressing the national nutritional problem with a carrot than a stick.