PRIVATE LIFE, NOT SO PRIVATE ANYMORE

In the United States today you can be fired for being a smoker. Yes, it turns out some companies are firing people - or not hiring them - because of their smoking habit, even though they smoke outside of the workplace and in their own private time.

And the reason for that? Healthcare costs.

I read about this at the LA Times this past weekend and I am a bit confused. This is what people do in the realm of their private lives, after hours. This is the same as having a drink after work. This is the same as eating cholesterol foods which could, down the road, be prejudicial to one's health.

Consider the following analogies: a person who eats only saturated fats could, in the future, be very well causing his/her employer to incur extremely high healthcare costs because of his diet - coronary disease, heart ailments, obesity and so forth. What are the big corporations going to do, prohibit employees from eating at McDonald's?

Same could be said of someone who lives a homossexual/bissexual lifestyle, which could mean that he or she is possibly more exposed to sexually transmitted diseases.

Come to think of it - anyone who is not sexually and emotionally abstinent could be a liability to any employer in several ways: pregnancy costs, sexually transmitted diseases, and even the occasional heartbreak (which in turn could lead to healthcare costs and decline in overall productivity).

More - anyone who actually steps out of the house to go to work is automatically at risk: car crashes, pollution, name it. If you have stairs in your home, imagine the possibilities: you could fall and break your neck, or your spine (probably worse, since you could be in for extensive long-term medical care)...

Dark humor aside, this is the reality of the United States working place nowadays. Because the public sector does not share the private sector's medical costs (as in other countries), the latter is looking to reduce their bills through the greatest incentive ever: unemployment.

While I understand (understand, by the way, does in no way mean I agree with) the rationale of these companies, there is a difference between protecting the interests of a private business and demanding complete allegiance from its employees in order to meet financial goals. We're not joining the ranks here, and I will absolutely not give up on my sushi just because some corporate big shot is fearful of mercury poisoning.

My friends, let's all stop doing what we are doing, that is: living. Let's just freeze in time and space, let the robots take over while we slowly fade away and become... nothing. Or let's just all work for the public sector: there, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution would at least provide us with grounds on which to take a case of dismissal for off-duty activity to court.