Obesity Inc.

The genius of American capitalism is the way it generates so much revenue both from making thin people fat, and from promising to make fat people thin. The Obesity Industry constitutes about 3% of the American economy, according to Michael Rosenwald in The Washington Post, including $133.7 billion annually for fast-food restaurants, $1.8 billion for diet books and $124.7 billion for medical treatments related to obesity. (Not to mention cottage industries such as Goliath Casket, which has, according to its web site, has been "serving the needs of the Oversized Casket Community for 20 years.") Meanwhile, investors are betting heavily on a new wave of diet drugs due on the market soon, including Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, while Wyeth is still paying out vast amounts in legal settlements to patients injured by its diet drug combination Fen-Phen.