The last time I visited China, the tour guides tried to tell me that that I am fat with a phrase that roughly translates to “as round as pearls and as shiny as oil”, which is meant to be complimentary to the beauties of ancient dynasties. When we visited the Stone Forest attraction in Kunming, the tourguide related a story of a Chinese American couple who couldn’t fit through the spaces between the stone pillars, and could not enjoy walking through the natural wonder. In America I am considered petite, being only size 2, but in China I couldn’t even zip up the extra large pants. That experience is what led me to research fat in America, and it’s alarming how much we spend on obesity-related issues. This is not a post meant to belittle overweight people, but simply a small compilation of facts and figures about the cost of our collective fat.

Fat Healthcare Costs — You may be amongst the 40% of Americans who are not overweight, but you are probably still paying a percentage of your taxes towards treating the obesity of others. According to the , the approximate cost of obesity-related healthcare is an incredible 78.5 billion dollars in 1998, of which 37.6 billion were paid by Medicaid or Medicare. Adjusting the total cost for inflation using the CPI calculator, it’s about 100,000,000,000 dollars in 2007, and the actual cost is possibly even larger since healthcare costs have risen much more than the average inflation in recent years. The put this in perspective, our fat-related health costs beat

Fat Insurance Costs — The above healthcare costs only account for the money spent for healthcare and not the insurance. Obesity is considered a payout risk to insurance companies and health insurance could be a lot pricier for an obese person.

Fat Fuel Costs – It makes sense that it takes more energy to move more weight. An article last year states that Americans are consuming each year compared to 1960 due to the extra weight. Similarly, airplanes are also using more fuel because people are getting heavier on average.

Fat Death Costs– This may seem morbid, but those extra pounds of the deceased can increase the funeral expenditures of those left behind. The BBC reported that larger coffins is becoming more prevalent and some crematoria actually .

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Mandated Exercise — I remember that in school I always had PE classes where I had to exercise approximately one hour a day. After I graduated college and started a job where I sit all day and type, I gained approximately fifteen pounds. It also didn’t help that there were tons of free snacks and sodas in the office kitchen. If the government or work place has some kind of mandated exercise, then perhaps a lot of extra love handles can be shed.

Eat More Healthy Food — High calorie and fat foods generally appear cheaper, but considering the long term health, energy, and social costs of being overweight, it’s probably more financially prudent to eat fresh and healthy food.

Diet Together — My mom used to be very overweight, but she has lost a lot of flab because my dad loves to go outdoors and takes her hiking. At first, she said she hated hiking, but the more she hiked the more she enjoyed it. It’s much easier to diet with friends and family since you’ll often eat the same food and participate in the same activities.

I will not address the emotional costs of being overweight in this post because those are beyond financial. Some people are really overweight because of medical problems and no matter how hard they try, they can’t lose weight. For the rest of us, losing that extra bit of weight can save all of us a lot of money and stress in the long run.

Lately in the media we are hearing a lot about foreclosures caused by subprime mortgages in America. This made me wonder how mortgages and real estate transactions are handled in places other than United States. So here’s the first installment featuring Afghanistan since it’s the alphabetically first country in the world.

Some quick facts about Afghanistan taken from Wikipedia:

Population
- 2007 estimate 31,889,923 (37th)
- 1979 census 13,051,358
- Density 119 /sq mi

It’s actually very hard to find any legitimate looking Afghani real estate listings on the internet. The war-torn country lost an incredible amount of homes while its population is still increasing at a rapid clip. according to a recent article in the BBC:

New Kabul is an ambitious experiment in mortgaging homes – the first time ever in Afghanistan – in a country where an annual $380 per capita income makes it virtually impossible for most people to afford homes.

Banks will buy these homes from the government and then mortgage them to buyers who, officials reckon, will have to pay $100 to $150 every month for 16 years before becoming owners.

The article then goes on to describe the massive amount of home shortages in Afghanistan and that for most Afghanis owning a home is “virtually impossible”. Many homes are illegally built and crumbling apartments are in demand. There is no mention of home prices, but the article did state that “a two-bedroom apartment in Kabul can cost $200 a month, compared to $7 for a three-bedroom home before the war in 1978″ because of the home building shortages. No foreclosure data is available due to mortgage products being very new.

What we can derive from this is that the new homes with mortgages are all cheap viagra online canadian pharmacy. It implies that there are governmental regulations around these home transactions. Additionally, rent payments seem to be more expensive than the mortgage payments due to the shortage of homes. In Afghanistan, perhaps mortgages will be what they’re meant to do, help people fight inflation of housing prices.

Addendum: in my search for real estate in Afghanistan I did find a looking for “Real Estate Deelopment” opportunities in Afghanistan. Perhaps he’s on the right track.