We As A Nation Need To Stop Fat Shaming And Instead, Turn To Poor Shaming

We have an obesity epidemic in America. And it’s costing us hundreds of billions of dollars a year in extra medical expenses. But even though I enjoy a good fat shaming, it’s time to stop. Poor people are costing this country trillions of dollars in Medicaid, SNAP, EITC, unemployment benefits, rent and mortgage subsidies every year. We need to redirect our scorn from fat people to poor people.

Because being poor is completely within your control. Everybody says they don’t want to be poor, but they don’t really mean it because if they really wanted to not be poor, they would simply not be poor. It’s that simple. You just have to save money, invest the money you saved, and make more money.

There are so many ways to save money. Stop buying overpriced coffee and brew it at home for cheap. Don’t buy an iPhone along with its expensive two year contract data plan; get a feature phone with a prepaid plan instead. Don’t eat meat; eat rice and beans and the appropriate amount of vegetables. Don’t go out and drink because alcohol is hideously overpriced at bars. Don’t eat out at restaurants, just heat up cans of rice and beans. All of that stuff adds up.

While you’re at it, you should consider moving back in with your parents. Or, failing that, adding an extra roommate to defray the cost of rent. Do you have 1 bedroom? Put a cot in the living room and share your bathroom. You can also cut down on your electricity bill by turning off the heating in the winter and not blasting the AC in the summer. More than 70% of a normal electricity bill is caused from heating water and AC/heating.

But it’s not just enough to cut costs. You need to take the money you’ve saved and invest it in prudent, low expense ratio, broad market index funds. Make sure you structure your investments correctly to take advantage of all the tax incentives the IRS provides for investors. With that, you can slowly grow your portfolio with all the money you’ve saved from cutting out frivolous expenses from your life.

Are you not making enough money? Move! North Dakota has a 2.6% unemployment rate. They can’t hire enough people to support the booming oil and gas industry there. Even busboys and dishwashers are making over 15 an hour. The state has the fastest income growth in the country because over-entitled millennials would rather bitch about being poor in New York City instead of heading west to strike it rich.

Even if you don’t want to spend your time in the desolate, cold wasteland that is North Dakota, you can gain skills that are in high demand. There are huge shortages of machinists, plumbers, electricians, and welders. And none of those occupations require a college degree. All of them pay wages much higher than your average barista, food service worker, or retail clerk.

And if you don’t want to be a blue collar worker, you can work a white collar job just as long as you do well in high school, go to a well regarded college, major in a high demand degree, and do paid internships while you’re in school. You’re virtually guaranteed to graduate with a career track job offer in hand.

Any poor person can be not poor. All it takes is the right mindset, discipline, willpower, and knowledge to execute a complicated, multi step plan consisting of cost cutting, retraining, situational awareness, and willing debasement. All of this is possible if you just try harder and smarter.

Or you can bitch out and gloat at fat people to make yourself feel better. That works too.