But isn’t it a good thing, wellness advocates will ask, to help people deal with their weight and other health issues? The key question is whether this help is an offer or a command. If companies set up free and voluntary wellness programs, few would have reason to object. (And workers who opt in to such programs do, in fact, register gains, though they might well have done so without them.) But tying a flawed statistic like BMI to compensation, and compelling workers to mold their bodies to the corporation’s ideal, infringes on freedom. It gives companies an excuse to punish people they don’t
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