Sooo I just got back from my visit to Bloomsburg, maybe I will blog about it later. Right now, I have a different topic on my mind.

(one thing that did piss me off about BOTH colleges was they both had some type of “get health lose weight” program. At B it was “Lose Flab Get Fab!” or some shit. God I just wanted to tear down that little papers off the wall. I don’t know if that is just some lame little program or it it’s popular or not. Ughh but Cedar Crest had a “Healthy U” program were you get weighed in and it’s a fucking competition. That pissed me off. So I guess comparitively Blooms wasn’t as big a thing, seeing as I only saw two little hot pink papers on a bulletin board, but Cedars had a whole chunk of their website dedicated to it… UGH!)

ANYWAY!

That’s not what I am going to talk about now.

So I get home my visit and I make the rounds on my fat blogs that I oh-so-lurveee to read. I always go to Shapely Prose first, just because it’s easy to remember the URL lol. Plus, I just always like to check it first. From there I head on over to the Fatosphere link and read and read and read. So anywho, I was at Shapely Prose and read this post, and it made me remember a topic i wanted to write about in this blog about Capitalism.

So in our senior year, students at my high school are forced to take Gov/Econ. We don’t have a choice (thank you education). Emulee can vouch for this fact. We had Government the first semester, and are currently in Economics. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like Economics (a whole hell of a lot more than Government… uGH!). We are currently talking about how self interest is good for the economy. See, when people are trying to sell stuff, the ones who have the best product/quality for the price generally are the ones that sell, so it is in a sellers best interest to make the best product so they can get $$$ from us old consumers. And something about an invisible hand or other and a guy called Adam Smith.

Apparently back in the olden days people thought his theories were pretty sucky and radical. Back then being selfish was BAD and the thought of our whole economy being based on it would lead to CHAOS (or something like that..). So most people thought it was crap. But apparently, as we know, it is not. When people are selfish it benefits society and something about a butcher. Because the butcher doesn’t put meat on the table because he is nice, it’s because he wants $$$ and people to think he is nice, or something. (as you can tell, I should probably study my book alittle bit more. Maybe Emuhlee can correct me if I am wrong).

What I disagree with about this self-interest is that it benefits everyone. Because what did I think of? Dieting industry/anyone who wants to make a buck off fatties like me. Does that benefit me AT ALL? FUCK NO.

When someone is trying to sell me something I think I want but I don’t need, or that I think I want it because they are shoving down my throat beliefs that I need it, or that everyone else is buying it, or that my life will suck if I don’t buy it, that I am an evil selfish blob if I don’t buy it…. That is NOT beneficial to me in anyway. That only benefits the assholes who are selling the shit to me.

So maybe selfinterest is good for competition and making better products, etc., but it is not always beneficial. It stops being beneficial when the end product is you buying something that will only cause you harm. Maybe you don’t know any better. I know there are ton of people out there who still hate their bodies and would buy and crap magic potion to fix it because they don’t know any better. Or maybe they do and they just don’t care. When people start selling us crap because they know they can make money and not because it will make our lives better, that’s when it stops being beneficial for everyone.

And maybe if you aren’t in my economics class this makes absolutely no sense. Lord knows if I wasn’t I would probably be like “okay, next blog”… But I just had to rant about it because it has been on my mind. Maybe my Econ teacher would be proud that I am actually thinking about this (unlike the majority of my class).. Or that i am reading into this wayyy too much.

Time to leave with a quote from the post I linked above that is somewhat off topics but still kinda on topic:

Face to face with marketing telling her that she should be ashamed, that she has a Freckle Problem that needs fixing, she nevertheless refuses to allow her body to be pathologized. She doesn’t give in to messages telling her that she should be suffering; she doesn’t even acknowledge them as applying to her. She loves her freckles because they’re part of her face, and she loves her face because it’s part of her, and she doesn’t see any reason not to love herself. So why would she give any credence to people who assume she’s suffering from something?

We could all use to be a little more like Pippi. Freckles and fat aren’t conditions that you suffer from or problems that you struggle with, and anyone who says differently is probably selling something. Don’t buy the freckle salve. In fact, don’t buy the sign. It wants you to think you should be suffering from freckles — that they’re wrong, that they make you wrong. Don’t buy it; it doesn’t apply to you. There will always be messages telling you that your body’s beautiful individual idiosyncrasies are “issues” and “problem areas” that need to be cured. I want to be able to march right up to them and say “I don’t suffer from it; I love it.” I want that for all of you, too.