Obesity Market FailureObesity is a major problem in the United States. Fatty foods in our society are considered cheap and convenient, but they cost the nation billions of dollars. According to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), more than one-third (34.9%) of adults in the United States are obese. The cost of obesity in the United States is estimated at $147 billion. In the United States, annual medical bills for obese people are $1,429 more than those of a normal-weight person. Obesity leads to various diseases such as diabetes, heart attacks and can even lead to death. Fatty foods and obesity cause many financial fallouts for government and society. Some of the costs brought about by obesity include: increased health care costs, loss of productivity, low self-esteem and waste of taxpayer dollars. As a market failure, America's obesity epidemic costs the federal government billions of dollars each year. While most obesity prevention programs aim to change the rate of children who become obese, many fail, leading to inefficient allocation of government resources. Much of what has already been done has proven to be barely a speed bump in the progression of the obesity epidemic. Several solutions can be explored to effectively stop this progression. Taxation of certain unhealthy foods, government benefits and subsidies for organic farmers, and the passing of new legislation to regulate the amount of calories a fast food restaurant is allowed to serve you, to name a few just a few. However, these solutions are only effective if they affect the lives of the majority of the population, thereby preventing obesity, while properly and efficiently allocating precious government resources. ...... middle of paper ...... which sets a standard for the quality of food that can be served in food establishments and grocery stores. The ripple effects from such solutions would negate the negative externalities created by fast food and obesity in the market. The entire obesity market is fully funded and semi-regulated by the federal government. Only by reallocating our government's resources, namely grants and subsidies, to a bigger solution will we see a decrease in obesity rates across the country. This will create a ripple effect that will, in turn, decrease the negative externalities imposed on the average non-obese consumer and the rest of the country. This negative externality, consisting of the excessive abundance of anti-obesity programs and the sums spent recklessly, has proven to be ineffective..