Karl Marx and Fat People

Recently, a Canadian court ordered Canada's airlines to provide two seats to obese passengers for the price of one. This is Socialism gone mad and the triumph of Gramscian Marxism.

Whether he realised it or not, the judge was applying Marx's dictum, "From each according to his ability. To each according to his needs."

The obese has a need - the need of two seats. The airlines which has seats must provide one extra for him or her for free. This means that there is a transfer of resources from the shareholders of the airlines to fat people since revenue and profits will be lowered.

Or perhaps, the airlines can increase the airfares accordingly and pass on the increased cost to other slimmer passengers. Either way, it is a transfer of resources. How much the airlines can pass on to other passengers depends on the elasticity of demand for airline seats. If demand falls drastically, the airlines may have to absorb some or all of the costs.

This Marxist victory shows that in spite of massive defeat of the Soviet Union in the Cold War, Marxism is winning the war for cultural hegemony. This was a concept first proposed by Antonio Gramsci. Marxism can only triumph when Capitalism's cultural hegemony is destroyed and replaced by the Marxist one.

This court ruling is a victory for Marxist culture. Apparently the Canadian judge thought it was fair that others (be it the airlines or other passengers) must subsidize the needs of fat people. I don't know how the judge acquired this central piece of Marxist culture but it must be contested.

We need to show how unjust his ruling is. What his ruling boils down to is that those who are disciplined enough to eat sensibly and exercise must subsidize gluttons and sloths. This is unfair. How long more must virtue subsidize vice? By subsidizing gluttons, you are going to get more gluttons.

The more gluttons there are the more sick people there will be as obesity is linked to heart disease and other ailments. They soon won't be able to work and have to rely on public assistance. This means that the healthy people will have to work and pay higher taxes to subsidize those whose ill-health is largely due to their gluttony and indolence.

This is no laughing matter as obesity is a growing problem. Surveys estimate that 30% of Americans are obese. If airlines are compelled to give 3 out of 10 passengers free seats, then airline tickets will have to rise by as much as 43% to compensate for the loss of revenue.

James Madison once said, "'Government is instituted to protect property of every sort....This being the end of government....That is NOT a just government...nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has...is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest."

In this case, the Judge is seizing the property of slim people and giving it to fat people. Is that fair?