undefined | Better HN

0 pointsrosser11y ago0 comments

In the case of poor diets, it's often enough a matter of what they can afford. So, yes. Let's impose a financial penalty on people who are eating poorly because they can't afford to eat well. That makes perfect sense.

That said, I'm not opposed to smokers paying higher premiums — but that practice already exists, based on policyholder disclosure, or rescission in the event of fraud. (I say that as a former smoker, who did disclose my habit, and paid a substantially higher premium because of it.) We don't need carriers trolling through peoples' transaction history to dredge up every possible excuse for hiking premiums, because that's exactly what they'll do.

0 comments

6 comments · 1 top-level

eru11y ago· 5 in thread

You can eat well for cheap. But it requires discipline. And that's what lot of poor people lack. (It's a survivorship bias: discipline helps your chances of getting out of poverty.)

mreiland11y ago

You cannot consistently eat well for cheap.

Yes, it's true that sometimes you can find healthy stuff for relatively cheap. It's also true that you cannot do it consistently, in order to "eat cheap" in a consistent manner, it means constantly hunting for those deals, which implies trading your time for money. This is something the poor do a lot of, sitting at a laundromat instead of just throwing clothes in a washer, for example.

And I don't want to hear about eating some form of beans 5 days/week, eating healthy implies variety.

It can occassionally be done as cheaply as eating unhealthily, but not consistently over time. Your food bill will go up.

eru11y ago

No need for deals. Just stick to the basics, and avoid sugar and other crap.

> And I don't want to hear about eating some form of beans 5 days/week, eating healthy implies variety.

Vegetables can be pretty cheap, if you stick to what's in season. Beans are a good start, add lentils, potatoes, carrots, etc. Offal makes for cheap protein (but is not to everyone's taste).

1 more reply

lilsunnybee11y ago

When the wealthy de-stress it's because they earned it. When the poor de-stress it's due to lack of discipline.

eru11y ago

Yes, the wealthy have it easier. It requires less discipline to stay wealthy, than to become wealthy.

CamperBob211y ago

It has to do with where the stress came from in the first place.

Stress is usually self-inflicted. There are good reasons to subject yourself to stress, and there are bad reasons.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse