It is not exactly artificial. In standard sizes, body shapes form around a basic skeletal structure so the variations between different sizes is relatively similar. That is why "standard" sizes can be made, and they can be sized up and down relatively cheaply. However, after a certain point that's no longer true.…

Yes and I think that once it starts becoming more profitable with increasing average sizes, that will happen. Not making clothes in 1X+ sizes or having clothes in unflattering stills is not because companies don't like large people, it's because making clothes in those larger sizes is far more expensive than simply…

Yes. But that also means that it is more expensive to make, since designers have to come up with a completely different set of designs. So it makes sense that selection will be more limited and it will cost more.

That sounds like a production mistake, or might be a result of "scaling up" a design for a standard sized model to a plus sized model. Maybe the S size is 38.5, but they missed the length measurement when scaling up to the 1X.

We live in a market economy. If there is an untapped profitable market for plus-size designer clothing, do you really think that fashion companies (other than A&F apparently) are purposefully losing out on money by not supplying to it. It just isn't profitable to make a full range of styles in all the possible sizes…

Well clothes above a certain size do have to be designed differently due to different body shapes and need for support etc. So it's not just a simple matter of taking a M size dress and making it twice as big in all proportions.

Yes. I actually think that trying to defuse the media attention could be a good thing. I'm not trying to undermine the tragedy here, but hysterical family members demanding information that is not there does not help. If anything it leads to premature release of information which could end up diverting resources away…

Barack = Barrack, Nazi and Communist Soldiers stayed in Barracks. Anyone seeing a connection here?

But that's the problem when there's a media spectacle from families demanding answers. It's not like the malayian government has a huge file in there with every detail about the crash they are refusing to release. Evidence is trickling in, some of it is accurate, some of it is anecdocal, some of it is inaccurate. It…

I know this is just a personal anecdote, but both the caregiving and prevalence prongs can be explained by the same fact that men have a lower life expectancy. I have both a grandfather and a grandmother on different sides of the family who have alzheimers. My paternal grandfather is being taken care of by my paternal…

Yes. It's very easy to say all pensions are unreasonable...except mine! Mine is too low! Cut everyone elses!

Hopefully by increasing domestic consumption? I'm not saying this will definitely work - but just pointing out that your argument that if we reduce the number of farmers in a society that's 70% agricultural will mean that they will be unable to grow crops. Otherwise the United States should be in constant famine.

Yes - and the USSR KM and DPRK were not founded on the precepts of racial and gender equality either. Economic equality, maybe (but that is heavily debatable). I mean at the very least you'll agree that American was founded on the basis of political equality in that one man = one vote? No taxation without…

Farms can be modernized and consolidated. It's sort of like how american agriculture is magnitudes more efficient and productive than the feudal system with 90% of the population growing subsistence crops on 1/10th of an acre.

Yes just as the Vet's "earned" their benefits, government workers earned their pensions, and people paying into social security earned those benefits, yet conservatives are the first to call for slashing pensions and social security. Also, $70 billion allocated to vets is a "drop in the bucket" but suddenly the far…

That's why we should just have uni-sex multi-stalled bathrooms. One stall restrooms would be considerably more expensive then multi-stall restrooms. For example, Berkeley's dorms have completely unisex bathrooms and showers stalls - there isn't really a problem there. For privacy concerns the stalls can be easily…

You could say the same for America - The land of equal opportunity. I'd argue that 1) Those countries were not really founded with the precepts of communism, communism was just good propoganda to get popular support and I don't think anyone can argue that Stalin, Kim Il Sung, or Pol Pot ever made any attempt to create…

Alright, I agree - I interpreted "prejudice" in the post to mean society's current prejudices, and I think those are definitely fixable. But yes, I think you are right in that broader "prejudice" as defined as people creating categories and making assumptions about those categories is not something as easily fixed.…

Well I think just depends on how you think prejudice developed - I mean there's no point arguing about it, and really there's no way of saying whose right. If you believe that prejudice is ingrained and "natural" then yea you can't get rid of it, but you can try to correct it. If you believe that prejudice is an…

I know what you were trying to do - just pointing out that your argument is over broad, and your analogy doesn't really work. The phrase "shoehorn people into an ill fitting ideological framework" could easily apply to capitalism as well (capitalism assumes that there is a perfectly efficient market, but of course the…