Women’s liberation provided women with a growing array of workplace opportunities at higher wages relative to men, which has increased relatively the full price of home-cooked meals (including the cost of meal preparation) and encouraged the consumption of preprocessed foods and restaurant meals, all of which tend to have more calories.
To meet market competition for Americans’ entertainment dollars, stadium and concert halls (and furniture manufacturers) have widened their seats. Fashion designers have designed clothing to camouflage Americans’ weight, making it easier (and less costly) for people to eat excessively.
The downfall of communism in the former Soviet Union and China freed 2 billion people dramatically to provide globally the variety of available foods, which has increased the count of meals and snacks.
The growing competitiveness of the world oil industry gave rise to a two-thirds drop in the real price of gas between 1913 and 1998, at which time the price was less than $1.40 a gallon. The drop in the real price of gas in the 1980s and 1990s caused Americans to drive more and to walk less, to go out to eat more—and order in calorie-packed meals more frequently.
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