Forcing every adult to exercise 30 minutes a day would probably also have positive health outcomes. But would that be a good enough reason to introduce such a policy?
In US schools most students are forced to exercise about 30 minutes per day during gym class. I had this from at least 6th-10th grade, though maybe only a handful of days per week had any serious exercise, usually running or playing sports like soccer or basketball.
Not in any schools I attended or have had children in. You got gym maybe 1 to 2 times a week. In elementary school you were expected to run around during recess. In middle school and high school we had a proper gym class 3 days a week.
It's been a thing in Japan off and on for a few decades at least resulting in fewer sick days. [1] I could see commercial gym's being upset if this were implemented. In the US and EU it would probably have to be voluntary at first with really good incentives to get people into it and would probably have to remain voluntary for one or two generations.
I think a harder challenge would be to get rid of all the bad foods and snacks. Facebook might be a good place to test removing bad foods given how many people live there and never leave. I can not even begin to imagine the incentives that would be required for people to adopt it.
> In the US and EU it would probably have to be voluntary at first with really good incentives to get people into it and would probably have to remain voluntary for one or two generations.
Health insurance companies already offer gym reimbursements. But that doesn't matter if you have a bad diet and bad sleep and spend too much time working or commuting, and don't feel well enough to benefit from a gym membership.
Heck, there's literally a free gym in the office building where I work, but few people use it because they are busy working during the work day.
I already get worn out physically by the thing I do for a living. I negotiated delicately to keep the amount of it I do to a minimum so that I can also do the things I regard as real life, which take place in bed with my laptop. If the government forces a mandatory half-hour of exercise on me I will get militant. I'm not gonna be frogboiled into accepting it, either.
One-size-fits-all solutions suck donkey balls.
Do they really have compulsory exercise in Japan? You say "off and on" ... so, I'm guessing, currently off?
Oh, from the link, it's mandated by the company you work for. That would select for office workers, and possibly fits Japan best considering the culture of being always in the office (asleep).
It would, but when you reach a certain age these institutions dont have power over you anymore to such an extent and when reintroduced to being as controlled as people were when they were back in school but in their adult lives at their older age they tend to freak out.
Yes 30 minutes of exercise a day and other ”law” like one preventing people from overeating to where they wouldn’t be able to walk anymore would be wildly positive but seeing as it’d impose on the freedom to be unhealthy it would not work.
In my workplace, they pay you $$ for submitting step counter data, etc.
In my church, the run club that encourages this has been great.
At my country club, the “challenges” they release every month similarly have been great and the vast majority of the community participates in them competitively.
once you are adult you can claim “oh my freedom” and all that stuff… kids have no such luxury, it is on parents/teachers/community/policy/… to get them as best we can to adulthood and hence these two are not comparable. should we let kids snort coke during recess might be though (we don’t)
Banning something that you ban for adults as well is defensible. Insisting kids follow a standard of "healthy" that you won't apply to yourself smacks of hypocrisy and bullying.
Say what you like about Noam Chomsky, but I recall him once saying that it is OK to cover children as their parent, presumably to build good habits. Thinking back about my childhood, I am sure that my parents did similar, to much benefit to me as an adult!
Typical hn comment. Spin a good effect as no different than coming from another cause and then argue how it should not be made into a rule. False equivalence.
Deliberately introducing it as a cultural change would probably significantly increase life satisfaction (through prolonging healthspan and lifespan both) and have positive effects on the economy. Cultures that value exercise (mainly Asian examples come to mind) benefit from all these things.
