Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

The Wall Street Journal is the best source of unintentional comedy on Earth.  Today's laugh riot is provided by Matt Ridley, who wants to find a "market-related" solution to obesity and health care costs.  Nowhere in the article does it occur to Ridley that the wide availability of cheap, unhealthy mass-produced fast food and the multi-billion dollar agriculture giants that power it might have something to do with it.  That's not the funny part.

The last two paragraphs may be the most amazingly hysterical thing I've ever read.

In due course, the obesity problem will be solved, I suspect. The ultra-rich have already solved it. Most of them are very thin these days, quite unlike in ancient times. That's because they can afford the solutions that work for them, from low-carb diets to personal trainers. 

If economic growth continues to spread, as it has over the past two centuries, most people will be ultra-rich by today's standards within two generations, and slim figures will also spread. Still, it would be nice to find a way for people to lose weight without having to wait for them to get rich first.

If economic growth continues to spread the way it has in the last two generations, the ultra-rich are going to need those personal trainers to stay in shape in order to escape the blood mobs coming for them.

That, and for clueless hacks like Ridley here.