Obesity is a disability?

[Jazzy]

The EU's top court is considering a test case which could oblige employers to treat obesity as a disability.

Denmark has asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the case of a male childminder who says he was sacked for being too fat.

He worked for Billund authority for 15 years and was dismissed, the authority said, because there was a decline in the number of children. No further explanation was given as to why he was selected for dismissal.

Karsten Kaltoft weighs about 160kg (25 stone; 350 pounds). He told the BBC that "bad habits" had made him fat but that his size was "no problem" at work.

The court's final ruling will be binding across the EU.

It is seen as especially significant because of rising obesity levels in Europe and elsewhere, including the US. A survey in England in 2012 found that more than half of adults were obese or overweight.

If the judges decide obesity is a disability then employers could face new obligations, she told the BBC.

Employers might in future have a duty to create reserved car parking spaces for obese staff, or adjust the office furniture for them, she said.

The judges will have to decide whether obesity is covered under the EU's Employment Equality Directive, which outlaws job discrimination on grounds of disability.

Source

In your opinion, should obesity be classified as a disability? Why / Why not?

 

[McConnaughay]

We have an obesity epidemic. An epidemic. Like it's polio.

"How did you get through it, Grandpa?"

"It was horrible, Johnny, there were cupcakes and brownies everywhere."

---

I think it was Greg Giraldo that said that.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

What a sad society we have become. If the generation who went through the great depression just after it ended went into the future to see the lazy and entitled society that thinks everything should be given to them with freebies saw us they would kick our ass thinking how pitiful we are.

 

[McConnaughay]

What a sad society we have become. If the generation who went through the great depression just after it ended went into the future to see the lazy and entitled society that thinks everything should be given to them with freebies saw us they would kick our ass thinking how pitiful we are.

I hardly think the majority of the society is lazy. Not even close, in-fact. I think we're a nation hungrier than we've ever been. (In more ways that one, evidently.)

I think there has always been this nonsensical feeling of nostalgia about the past. As if you can rewind back a few decades and find people complaining about the same thing, and then here them saying how good it was "back then," and it keeps going forever in and endless loop.

Anything short of of looking at each individual person will leave it more opinion-based than anything else, so I can't really prove other-wise. Unemployment is high, but that's hardly an indication of laziness. Legitimately, it's difficult to get a job.

It's a different time, where different things are seen as necessary to succeed. For example, there's a higher dependance on education. Long-term schooling has become the norm, for example, and there's a lot more technology around us. I don't believe that makes up lazy, I believe that merely makes us a different society than the one that came before. Judgment, be in constructive or cynical, is bound to happen, but that's what I believe.

---

"If you must find your own path, and we have left you no easy path, then decide now to choose the hard path that leads to the life and the world that you want. … I believe we have given you a gift, a particular form of independence, because you do not owe the previous generation anything. Thanks to us, you owe it to the Chinese." - Stephen Colbert

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

What a sad society we have become. If the generation who went through the great depression just after it ended went into the future to see the lazy and entitled society that thinks everything should be given to them with freebies saw us they would kick our ass thinking how pitiful we are.

I hardly think the majority of the society is lazy. Not even close, in-fact. I think we're a nation hungrier than we've ever been. (In more ways that one, evidently.)

I think there has always been this nonsensical feeling of nostalgia about the past. As if you can rewind back a few decades and find people complaining about the same thing, and then here them saying how good it was "back then," and it keeps going forever in and endless loop.

Anything short of of looking at each individual person will leave it more opinion-based than anything else, so I can't really prove other-wise. Unemployment is high, but that's hardly an indication of laziness. Legitimately, it's difficult to get a job.

It's a different time, where different things are seen as necessary to succeed. For example, there's a higher dependance on education. Long-term schooling has become the norm, for example, and there's a lot more technology around us. I don't believe that makes up lazy, I believe that merely makes us a different society than the one that came before. Judgment, be in constructive or cynical, is bound to happen, but that's what I believe.

---

"If you must find your own path, and we have left you no easy path, then decide now to choose the hard path that leads to the life and the world that you want. … I believe we have given you a gift, a particular form of independence, because you do not owe the previous generation anything. Thanks to us, you owe it to the Chinese." - Stephen Colbert

We have 50% of Americans taking some kind of Government hand out off the backs of working American. We have more Americans on welfare then working full time. They sure sound lazy and dependent to me. Maybe up to 5% of those Americans truly need the help because of disability's they have which I have no problem with. Except that should be the states job not the feds but thats a different topic. And I understand out of the 93 million Americans not working its just impossible to find work. But I would bet a hefty sum if our dear leader did his job on the borders and we didnt hand out food stamps and welfare like free candy Americans would get off there asses and do those jobs to feed themselves and there families. Our government has purposely created a society that wants people dependent and compliant.

Were only hungrier to take what belongs to others because they did work for it and are able to buy it. This generation has no desire to put in the time and hard work to achieve what they want. They expect it right out of the gate and have been taught from there stupid parents they can get it without actually having to start at the bottom first. Of course there are exceptions but those exceptions are dwindling away under this terrible culture of no moral standards.

Yes we like to look to the past for what was better but now we statistical proof just how pitiful the American people and culture has become.

 

[Evil Eye]

It's disabling, but it's not a disability in the sense that employers should compensate people for it. That would go against the "everyone needs to be healthier" thing that keeps rearing its head.

 

[McConnaughay]

Fifty percent of Americans taking the the handouts off the backs of hardworking Americans? I will need to see legitimate evidence supporting this. And I mean legitimate evidence.

Only up to 5% need help? That's a bold statement and there is no possible way you can back it up. You have nothing supporting it except a "take my word for it" opinion.

This generation has no desire to put the time and work to achieve what they want?

By insulting "this generation," you are, by extension, insulting me. By that, you make it personal.

You are insulting the classmates that I went to school with. You are insulting some of the people that I talk to on the internet. You are insulting my friends, ... you are telling me that they have no desire to put in effort. You are telling me that they need to get off their asses.

And you don't know them.

"I have statistics."

Laughable. That and fifty-cents will get you a cup of coffee. Statistics mean absolutely nothing. Nothing.

Where are the statistics that prove society had a moment of greatness?

You are insulting them based off of #'s on a sheet of paper, but more importantly, you are insulting them on what I believe is an unfair prejudice.

You call them pitiful, by-extension, you call me pitiful.

We'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[Bluezone777]

What a sad society we have become. If the generation who went through the great depression just after it ended went into the future to see the lazy and entitled society that thinks everything should be given to them with freebies saw us they would kick our ass thinking how pitiful we are.

Do you not know there were many during the era of the great depression who could not withstand those times? Many fell in life and never got back up from it so don't think everyone was all so wise and powerful until just now. There was many who were lost and never found their way even back then. There are many who are strong now and who persevere through hard times today much like they did back then and many now who do not as it was back then.

Do not think because you are not one of the lost that you have anything to brag about as it is very easy to stumble in life as life's storms come without notice and knock even the mightiest to their knees. It is because of this that I for one choose to not pride myself in my wisdom or good fortune but see both as blessings to be shared instead of to be boasted in.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Fifty percent of Americans taking the the handouts off the backs of hardworking Americans? I will need to see legitimate evidence supporting this. And I mean legitimate evidence.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/11/the-2013-index-of-dependence-on-government

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/census-49-americans-get-gov-t-benefits-82m-households-medicaid

http://rt.com/usa/half-government-million-percent-320/

http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/18/news/economy/government-entitlement-aid/




Only up to 5% need help? That's a bold statement and there is no possible way you can back it up. You have nothing supporting it except a "take my word for it" opinion.

With a little common sense and looking at our nations past unemployment and government handouts with a little common sense people can come up with a pretty good idea of who can actually work in this country.

Why I’m skeptical of the growing number of disability beneficiaries

David Mokotoff, MD | Physician
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/03/skeptical-growing-number-disability-beneficiaries.html

This generation has no desire to put the time and work to achieve what they want?

By insulting "this generation," you are, by extension, insulting me. By that, you make it personal.

If you read carefully I did not say everyone I said the largest percentage in our countries history. If I said everyone I would not be able to put my niece in there who is a hard worker and graduated in the military at the top of her class. Or my other niece who at the top of her class at Emory Riddle one of the best colleges in the world for aviation.

You are insulting the classmates that I went to school with. You are insulting some of the people that I talk to on the internet. You are insulting my friends, ... you are telling me that they have no desire to put in effort. You are telling me that they need to get off their asses.

And you don't know them.

I dont know them but yes I am telling you that a high percentage of them are just like that.American teens don’t want to work
Decline in summer jobs can’t all be blamed on the economy

Here’s yet another thing your teenager doesn’t want to do this summer: get a job.

The number of teens with summer jobs has fallen roughly 30 percentage points since the late ‘70s. In 1978, nearly three in four teenagers (71.8%) ages 16 to 19 held a summer job, but as of last year, only about four in 10 teens did, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the month of July analyzed by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas . It’s been a steady decline, seen even during good times: During the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, when national unemployment was only about 4%, roughly six in 10 teens held summer jobs. Even recently, with the economy recovering, fewer teens opted for jobs: Last year’s summer job gain was down 3% from the summer payrolls in 2012, the report revealed.

What’s more, John Challenger, the CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, says this is a trend that will likely continue. “We’re in a different era,” he says. “Being a teen is different than it used to be.”

Of course, some of this low teen unemployment can be blamed on the lackluster economy. Indeed, teen unemployment is more than 20% (remember that unemployment rates only measure those actively seeking jobs), in part because they are competing for jobs with other groups, including recent college grads and those with work experience.

But that can’t quite explain why fewer teens are working even during periods of economic expansion, says Challenger. He says that teens who are dropping out of the workforce represent only a small portion of those not working; instead, he says, most of these teens are choosing not to work in the summer. Indeed, there were nearly 11.4 million 16- to- 19-year-olds who were not in the workforce last summer -- and of those only about 951,000 (or 8.3%) said they wanted a job, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that Challenger, Gray & Christmas analyzed. “While the number of 16- to 19-year-olds not in the labor force who want a job has remained relatively flat since the mid-1990s, the number not wanting a job has steadily increased,” the report revealed.

This doesn’t mean that teens are simply tanning by the pool or binge-watching Bravo (though some certainly are). Challenger says that many teens are in summer school (rates of summer school attendance are at one of the highest levels ever, he says), volunteering, doing extracurricular activities to pad their college applications and trying out unpaid internships. And all of these are worthwhile endeavors (well, minus the tanning and Bravo), especially as it becomes more competitive to get into many elite colleges.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/american-teens-dont-want-to-work-2014-05-01?dist=beforebell Today's Kids Are Being Called Out as Lazy & Materialistic
by Jeanne Sager

clockBig news for moms this week. A new study says today's young people are "more materialistic" and less likely to work and study hard than any generation of kids before them. Moms! Could we be raising the lazy generation?

That's what a study published this week in the in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin says. The researchers claim "youth materialism" is at "historically high levels." And just wait till you hear what this could do to the job market.

The study out of San Diego State University claims that Gen Y or Generation Me, as today's teens are called, have a high desire for "material rewards," but they lack to a "willingness to do the work usually required to earn them."

It's a blow for moms who are working hard to raise kids who will be upstanding citizens and productive members of society. So is it true?

Here's what the web has to say about Generation Y:

In a piece titled the Go-Nowhere Generation, the New York Times contends young people today are just too sedentary:

According to the Pew Research Center, the proportion of young adults living at home nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008, before the Great Recession hit. Even bicycle sales are lower now than they were in 2000. Today’s generation is literally going nowhere.

And to make matters worse, the New York Times Magazine contends kids are pushing back the "five milestones" that mark the transition to adulthood:
http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/154937/todays_kids_are_being_called[/quote]

"I have statistics."

Laughable. That and fifty-cents will get you a cup of coffee. Statistics mean absolutely nothing. Nothing.

Thats laughable! I guess I can just delete all the proof you asked for above.

Where are the statistics that prove society had a moment of greatness?

Not sure what you are getting at? Are you saying you want proof our society has been great?

You are insulting them based off of #'s on a sheet of paper, but more importantly, you are insulting them on what I believe is an unfair prejudice.

You call them pitiful, by-extension, you call me pitiful.

I think I can add easily insulted to the list of this new generation. LOL!

We'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

What a sad society we have become. If the generation who went through the great depression just after it ended went into the future to see the lazy and entitled society that thinks everything should be given to them with freebies saw us they would kick our ass thinking how pitiful we are.

Do you not know there were many during the era of the great depression who could not withstand those times? Many fell in life and never got back up from it so don't think everyone was all so wise and powerful until just now. There was many who were lost and never found their way even back then. There are many who are strong now and who persevere through hard times today much like they did back then and many now who do not as it was back then.

Do not think because you are not one of the lost that you have anything to brag about as it is very easy to stumble in life as life's storms come without notice and knock even the mightiest to their knees. It is because of this that I for one choose to not pride myself in my wisdom or good fortune but see both as blessings to be shared instead of to be boasted in.

I am sure there were but thats been the case throughout society. But even though the great depression was a horrible time in history it made America and the people who survived it better for it. And we have lost almost all of the valuable lessons they passed on from good work ethics, politeness, good values, morals, wastefulness, how to treat a lady, and the list goes on and on.

I have stumbled many times in life. So I can agree on the second half of what you wrote.

 

[McConnaughay]

A little common sense? I like that about your arguments. They aren't supported my legitimate evidence or fact, but are considered by "common sense".

I read each one of those articles, those links that you gave me. While you might think you are proving your statement, you referred to them as handouts. I don't believe them as such. You can tell me that common-sense dictates the percent that actually requires assistance, until you are able to look at every individual, I don't believe that this is worth anything more than the paper that it was printed on.

Unfortunately, that's one of the short-coming's to some statistic analysis. They take a small fraction of people, and cross their fingers that it will actually apply as a public consensus.

While not everybody asking for, what you call, "handouts" is particularly deserving. I do, absolutely believe, that it is more than you believe. While you say that "you can't blame it all on the economy," I argue that you can blame more on the economy than what you give credit to. "Bike sells are going down," citizens must be lazy. Everybody has to ride bikes?

Easily insulted isn't the words that I would use to describe it. I would say that you referred to an entire generation as lazy and self-entitled, and that the statement was ill-advised.

Previously, I said that I believed the nation was hungrier. I'll elaborate a little on why I believe that. There's a newly established importance found in education. It has become the norm for individuals to pursue college. Our generation has the highest University and college applicants ever, which is why small colleges pop up sporadically.

"They are lazy because they want to be lazy at college instead of getting a real job."

I think they go to college because they want to be something more than an indistinguishable checker-piece in the game called life.

What you look at and call lazy, ... might be accurate, but I look at see a lot of ambition and a lot of will to do something. They might not all be working in the coalmine, or some other finger blistering job, but that doesn't mean it can't make a difference on a larger scale.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

A little common sense? I like that about your arguments. They aren't supported my legitimate evidence or fact, but are considered by "common sense".

One part of my argument but dismiss it if you wish. The rest I gave you absolute facts.

I read each one of those articles, those links that you gave me. While you might think you are proving your statement, you referred to them as handouts. I don't believe them as such. You can tell me that common-sense dictates the percent that actually requires assistance, until you are able to look at every individual, I don't believe that this is worth anything more than the paper that it was printed on.

You got something to show otherwise?

Unfortunately, that's one of the short-coming's to some statistic analysis. They take a small fraction of people, and cross their fingers that it will actually apply as a public consensus.

That all depends on how the statistics are done. And the good ones are much more accurate then just crossing there fingers.

While not everybody asking for, what you call, "handouts" is particularly deserving. I do, absolutely believe, that it is more than you believe. While you say that "you can't blame it all on the economy," I argue that you can blame more on the economy than what you give credit to. "Bike sells are going down," citizens must be lazy. Everybody has to ride bikes?

And yet everything shows otherwise from what you just wrote

Easily insulted isn't the words that I would use to describe it. I would say that you referred to an entire generation as lazy and self-entitled, and that the statement was ill-advised.

No easily insulted fits pretty well this new culture of ours. And you read what I wrote I did not say a whole generation I said the highest percentage not all.

Previously, I said that I believed the nation was hungrier. I'll elaborate a little on why I believe that. There's a newly established importance found in education. It has become the norm for individuals to pursue college. Our generation has the highest University and college applicants ever, which is why small colleges pop up sporadically.

Not sure what your point is here?


I think they go to college because they want to be something more than an indistinguishable checker-piece in the game called life.

Lets hope so.

What you look at and call lazy, ... might be accurate, but I look at see a lot of ambition and a lot of will to do something. They might not all be working in the coalmine, or some other finger blistering job, but that doesn't mean it can't make a difference on a larger scale.

Working hard and earning your way up does not have to mean what you just described.

 

[McConnaughay]

So, what's the problem then? A lot of people go to college to do EXACTLY that. Not all of them, but I think certainly enough not to dismiss a whole generation.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

So, what's the problem then? A lot of people go to college to do EXACTLY that. Not all of them, but I think certainly enough not to dismiss a whole generation.

Once again I never said a whole generation. I said the largest generation ever to act in the manners described above. Big difference.

Because what you are hearing time and again from large and small companies is the whole im entitled and I should be making and doing things at the top from the get go because I went to college. Time and again companies cant find people from this generation who are willing to grow and earn there way up by proving they are good as they think they are. I dont know what the hell is wrong with my generation either because we raised those kids to act like that.

There is a reason Google one of the biggest monsters of a corporation in the world has begun to hire people with no college diplomas over college graduates.

Why Google doesn’t care about hiring top college graduates
By Max Nisen @MaxNisen February 24, 2014
A neon Google logo is seen as employees work at the new Google office
Transparent, but not diverse enough. Reuters/Mark Blinch


Google has spent years analyzing who succeeds at the company, which has moved away from a focus on GPAs, brand name schools, and interview brain teasers.
+

In a conversation with The New York Times’ Tom Friedman, Google’s head of people operations, Laszlo Bock, detailed what the company looks for. And increasingly, it’s not about credentials.
+
Graduates of top schools can lack “intellectual humility”

Megan McArdle argued recently that writers procrastinate “because they got too many A’s in English class.” Successful young graduates have been taught to rely on talent, which makes them unable to fail gracefully.
1

Google looks for the ability to step back and embrace other people’s ideas when they’re better. “It’s ‘intellectual humility.’ Without humility, you are unable to learn,” Bock says. “Successful bright people rarely experience failure, and so they don’t learn how to learn from that failure.”
1

Those people have an unfortunate reaction, Bock says:
+

“They, instead, commit the fundamental attribution error, which is if something good happens, it’s because I’m a genius. If something bad happens, it’s because someone’s an idiot or I didn’t get the resources or the market moved. … What we’ve seen is that the people who are the most successful here, who we want to hire, will have a fierce position. They’ll argue like hell. They’ll be zealots about their point of view. But then you say, ‘here’s a new fact,’ and they’ll go, ‘Oh, well, that changes things; you’re right.’”
3

People that make it without college are often the most exceptional
http://qz.com/180247/why-google-doesnt-care-about-hiring-top-college-graduates/

 

[McConnaughay]

I think it's more of a problem with people in-general. Not pointing the fingers at one specific generation. And while there might be numbers and surveys, the same can be said for either argument. I can say that they are "more ambitious" than ever because they want more schooling. The world is so difficult to find footing on, so they think they have to educate themselves to have a chance to make it.