Mediaboss Marketing

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture scrapped the Food Pyramid that it had promoted for nearly two decades. Split into six sections, the Food Pyramid rested on a hefty load of complex carbohydrates: 611 servings of bread, cereal, rice, and pasta.

Oof.

Whatever else one may say of it, the Food Pyramid was clear, specific, and so simple that even a child could understand it. But there was just one problem: Americans were getting fatter. Increasingly, nutritionists blamed the carbs.

So out went the Food Pyramid, and in came MyPlate, a guide whose visual recommendations are so vague that anyone not deeply connected to the ongoing nutritional debate might have a hard time saying why it even exists or what it is trying to accomplish. Still, at least it doesnt recommend the massive daily doses of pasta.

Americans, being the good, obedient souls that they are, promptly started losing weight.

GOVERNMENT-CENTRIC THINKING At least thats the story told here in Washington, where all the right-thinking folks hold that every good outcome has a federal explanation. Here, it was the quite possibly improved federal nutrition guidelines, along with first lady Michelle Obamas advocacy against childhood obesity.

If the citizens are happy, then surely a bureaucrat is behind it, and its only a question of figuring out which one to thank. If they are sad, well, in this town, thats just another word for opportunity.

Whatever our ideology, we all grew up playing governmentality games.

A more sensible take on obesity, of course, would be to note that no trend continues forever, not even American fatness. Reversion to the mean, while it hasnt quite happened yet, ought never to surprise. Every trend continues until it cant anymore. None go on forever.

MyPlate serves as a good example of the sort of thinking I like to call SimCity progressivism. On this view, the governments purpose is not necessarily to provide any particular goods or services, and not even (or only) the ones found in the Constitution.

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SimCity Progressives