Bloomberg Hints That There May Be Limits To His Special Powers

By, Chris Rossini

The Great Mayor recently appeared on a radio show and was asked if he would consider ordering mandatory gym memberships.

Seems like a fair question in the land of the free, right?

Surely there are some lapdog scribes out there who can drum up some studies which show a correlation between gym membership and improved health.

And there are definitely lapdog scribes out there who can point out the skewed "distribution of wealth" in the U.S. and declare gym membership "access" a "right" that should be "free" and provided by the government.

So where does The Great Mayor stand on this very reasonable question?

The answer may surprise you:

“Well, you have to be practical about what legally you can do and what people will do,” said Mr. Bloomberg. “The nice thing about the soda thing is it’s really just a suggestion. So, if you want to buy 32 ounces,  you just have to carry it back to your seat in two cups. And maybe that would convince you to only take one, but if you want two you can do it. I think government’s job … is to give you advice, not to force you to do things.”

Interesting...

So Bloomberg's "soda thing" is really just a "suggestion"....Kinda like when Obama is merely "asking" the rich to "pay their fair share". That's all government does, it suggests and asks.

The Great Mayor continues:

“Although there are some things we try and force you to do,” he continued. “If there’s asbestos in the classroom or your office building, we force you out. If you want to drink and drive, we try and stop you–although sometimes not as successfully as you’d like. … I think some of these other things–calorie counts we’ve done in chain restaurants so you can see what you’re eating–[are okay]. But when it comes to forcing you, … the only thing the government can do practically–and I think should do–is education. Exercise is great for you, but how do you convince people to do it? And should you force them to do it? Probably not.”

So government merely "suggests" things, "provides advice" and "educates".

Should it force you to exercise? "Probably not".

The Great Mayor provides one great lesson here, and it's one he surely wasn't intending to provide: "The mind is a terrible thing to waste."

Power warps the human mind.

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