vortex’s blog

I’m not one to speculate on political issues, but with this new plan of Kevin Rudd’s to offer rent-assistance to low income families - while a good idea for renter and investor alike - I think there are more important issues that could be dealt with.

Overweight Australians are a problem now and will continue to be a problem into the future unless something is done, clearly its up to the individuals to take responsibility for that but I think there is a lot that the Government could do to help…

The way I look at it, it’s simple. Eat less + eat healthier + be active = Loose weight. Well, call me crazy, but thats how I’ve gone from 115kg to 83kg (A loss of 32kg / 70Lbs) in the past 2-and-a-bit years.

While at the end of the day it is up to the individual, the Government could easily provide incentives for companies to provide fitness equipment for their employees. Its a know fact that Internet Giants Google provide these sorts of benefits for their employees, but why cant the Government provide a kickback for every treadmill, bike and cross trainer installed in every office over 20 employees? Government kicks in 2/3rd’s of the price, Company kicks in the other 1/3rd. Or halves. Or split the percentages the other way. Once the equipment is installed, each company could setup schemes where for every Kg lost, you get a once-off bonus of $20. Sure makes shedding those extra kilo’s more fun!

Lets take that a step further, companies who put a trainer on the staff to help their employees, they could have the majority of that trainers wages paid for by the Government.

It could get expensive in the short term, but would it be as expensive as supporting a nation of overweight diabetics and coronary patients in later life?