obese flights
J.T. Scott
Engl: 191
Rough draft
Flight of the Obese Imagine this…You worked overtime shifts for the past 3 months to be able to afford this vacation. You struggled to get time off and you are now ready to relax and enjoy yourself on the trip. The time has come to take your seat on the plane and low and behold, you can’t even have a seat to yourself because the person next you is overweight and therefore over the armrest. Not only is this affecting your ability to enjoy a comfortable flight but economically this may affect your ability to afford to fly in the future. The objective of this research paper is to debate whether or not obese people should have to pay more for airline tickets. A study concluded that the 10 pounds Americans gained on average during the 1990s required an additional 350 million gallons of fuel a year (Adler). Obese passengers not only affect the comfort of others on the plane, it is a known fact that the heavier the vehicle the more fuel it burns. This means that as fuel usage goes up, so will the cost of plane tickets. Since there is no way to immediately tell if a potential passenger will cost extra fuel via internet purchase, airlines will simply just charge more from each customer to compensate for the rising cost of fuel. Obesity is rising in America, that's no secret - but are people aware of the rising economic costs of those extra pounds? According to a new study from the Campaign to End Obesity, spending due to obesity is actually twice the amount previously estimated - and exceeds the costs of even smoking. Those medical costs affect everyone, not just those who are obese. Higher health insurance premiums lead everyone to cover those extra medical costs. The U.S. spends an excess of $190 billion a year, the study found. (Dybuncio). The air is not the only place in which the obese are affecting the economy. Cars burn nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than they did in 1960, due to heavier
Engl: 191
Rough draft
Flight of the Obese Imagine this…You worked overtime shifts for the past 3 months to be able to afford this vacation. You struggled to get time off and you are now ready to relax and enjoy yourself on the trip. The time has come to take your seat on the plane and low and behold, you can’t even have a seat to yourself because the person next you is overweight and therefore over the armrest. Not only is this affecting your ability to enjoy a comfortable flight but economically this may affect your ability to afford to fly in the future. The objective of this research paper is to debate whether or not obese people should have to pay more for airline tickets. A study concluded that the 10 pounds Americans gained on average during the 1990s required an additional 350 million gallons of fuel a year (Adler). Obese passengers not only affect the comfort of others on the plane, it is a known fact that the heavier the vehicle the more fuel it burns. This means that as fuel usage goes up, so will the cost of plane tickets. Since there is no way to immediately tell if a potential passenger will cost extra fuel via internet purchase, airlines will simply just charge more from each customer to compensate for the rising cost of fuel. Obesity is rising in America, that's no secret - but are people aware of the rising economic costs of those extra pounds? According to a new study from the Campaign to End Obesity, spending due to obesity is actually twice the amount previously estimated - and exceeds the costs of even smoking. Those medical costs affect everyone, not just those who are obese. Higher health insurance premiums lead everyone to cover those extra medical costs. The U.S. spends an excess of $190 billion a year, the study found. (Dybuncio). The air is not the only place in which the obese are affecting the economy. Cars burn nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than they did in 1960, due to heavier