What's needed is more focus on building a healthy society and teaching people how to have balance in their lives, but that seems to be in direct conflict with mindless consumerism.
We can't have it both ways, and I suspect nothing much will change.
I don’t disagree with this, but I do sense that “teaching people how to have balance in their lives” only goes so far.
We’ve been trying to teach people how to be healthy, physically fit, to avoid substance abuse, and to spend money wisely but it seems that those lessons just don’t stick for most of the population. At some point intervention is needed beyond just teaching people the right way to live.
But I’m also weary of this because regulations can often be poorly thought-out, heavy handed, or unintentionally crafted to make the problem even worse.
>We’ve been trying to teach people how to be healthy, physically fit, to avoid substance abuse, and to spend money wisely but it seems that those lessons just don’t stick for most of the population.
"you" may, but look at the wider statistics on what cities and demographics are most subject to the obesity crisis.
Spoilers: it's an economic problem. You give people a living wage without requiring two minimum wage jobs to pay rent, and allow some time in their life for extra curriculars, and suddenly grabbing a greasy burger on the way home isn't as impulsive a decision when given time to breath in life. And by extension, give more time to educate children and money to encourage a proper diet (tho lunch food is a whole other issue we need to tackle).
We can't have it both ways, and I suspect nothing much will change.