"Once you are well off, you get more and more leisure time. So what do you do? You watch TV, eat and drink more, go for more outings. All of this means more food, more dates, more talk. And what can you talk about with greatest ease? Your food, love and politics."

This is so absurd as a piece of analysis that I'm almost left speechless. The chubby-cheeked, double-chinned, and saggy-faced Mr. Vamos may have used whatever little bit of money he's made in the Hungarian fiction-writing and TV-entertainment fields to spend more time drinking, chattering, and eating pastries in the cafes of Budapest, for several hours a day. Very European! But as it has already been noted in this thread, most people with a lot of money in the USA, and most people without much money too, earn it by working damned long hours every day, with little time off--a national poll this year revealed that 30% of employees took less than a week's vacation this summer, and 18% had no vacation at all. "Go for more outings...more dates, more talk"? What kind of strange fantasy world does this author inhabit? Then, as has also been noted, obesity in the USA is most closely correlated with poverty. The figures for the entire nation are skewed by the obesity rates among black and Hispanic people without much money, victims of the high fat content of their cultural cuisines and of the fast foods that are urgently marketed to them, of inadequate health information, fatalism, and, yes, lack of time and resources to do better. The fattest states and cities in the country are those like Mississippi or San Antonio, Texas, where these communities are most numerous. By contrast, Colorado is the the fittest state in the USA, trailed by others that are similarly affluent and nearly all white. So I conclude that Mr. Vamos should stick to subject he knows more about.

Americans by and large are lazy in the mind. They think only pure thoughts like the Taliban. They are a group of religous nuts! Look at the President. If it is not about convience than forget about it. Sex is not about convience. If it were prostitution would be legal. Imagine how much more sex we could have if we Americans could get a bj on the go!

What an unfortunate and oddly bad piece in this occasionally decent series. Aside from being poorly written, the assumptions presented seem quite poorly researched. The following are simple statistical truths: Americans take less time off than most of their European counterparts, show less sexual activity and sexually based television than many European nations, and are fattest when poorest due to a terrible diet. If his intent was to imply that America is becoming decadent in its free time, he should spend a longer period with his friends in Connecticut. For what its worth, I only know one family that has a guest room. For what its worth, the idea that they spend all their time idly talking about sex is ludicrous. The unfortunate truth is that the majority of us spend our time watching droll crap on television, most of it very tame by European standards, interacting very little, most of us too tired from our day job to wander down to the local bistro and speak frankly on our sexual exploits. You seem to have our nation confused with a movie about France.

hahahahahhahah whens the last time anybody from america wanted to go to hungary to his piss poor country. never. i hope he enjoys living in that crap hole.

By the way, Miklos, I have lived in Hungary. That is about the only country I know where you can buy a bucket of pig lard at the local flea market. A Fat American's paradise...

I want a hamburger right now!!!

Dear Mr. Vamos, as a Greek citizen myself I completely agree that American are fat and sex obsessed. In Greece we are too busy for sex. Since we don't have any guest rooms, we have to share our wedding bed with our guests. Greeks just don't have time or the inclination for sex.

Mr. Vamos:

I could not disagree with you more as far as this stereotypical view of the American society. Married to an American, I'm a Polish citizen who has lived here for 10 years. I see obesity as very closely - and inversely - related to one's income level. It is not the wealth but lack of it that forces many American families to buy cheap processed foods; eat on the go; forego fresh cooking ingredients; spend time inactively in front of a TV; and perpetuate sedentary lifestyle from generation to generation.

And talking about free time that comes with societal wealth is also an illusion. Everyone in the United States is busy - much busier than I know of in any European country - because everyone works so much. This is why the States has been at the forefront of productivity and technology growth for years.

Finally, it's no one's fault that we Europeans tend to believe Hollywood's imagery and expect Americans to be all slim and in great shape. The reality sets in only when you have a chance to truly experience the fullness of another country's culture and people. But it make take a little more time that a few years in Connecticut.

Yes, that is so true, and the truth usually hurts. So much is wasted and should be recycled to help save the environment.

Ignoring the fact that this doesn't come close to answering the question originally posed, I'm still not sure how these even got posted on the Washington Post. Obesity in America is more closely tied to lower family income levels rather than higher, especially when looking at childhood obesity. Lower income families and individuals often don't have the time and/or education necessary to prepare nutritious meals, opting instead to consume "cheaper," but generally unhealthy and fattening, fast food.

But again, this has nothing to do with the topic, and I'm wondering why it was even posted.

Mr. Vamos you were not impolite just a little puzzling. The rich generally don't have a lot of idle time, which is why they are rich, they work all the time.
Also, for as much as the international community complains about America being obsessed with sex in politics, they seem to know a lot about it.
I was in New Zealand during the Monica scandal, and all the Kiwis wondered why American's cared about the president's sex life -- all the while quoting Kenneth Star.

What a mire of stereotyping. Your observations are obviously based on personal exposure and experience rather than the data. Obesity in America, while well documented, exists in a matrix of regional patterns and income levels which run contrary to your comments. Mississippi, for example, has the highest occurance of obesity in the country and one of lowest median incomes. Visiting a family in Connecticut doesn't make you an informed observer of American life, and no opinion is worth more than the information it is based on. As for America's "sexual obsession", I would offer that humans in any culture tend to be highly interested in sex, and I suspect one could correlate leisure time with the occurance of discussions about sex. As incomes in Hungary rise you will probably experience the same thing - talking about it more and doing it less. . .

Mr. Vamos, you're right!

The truth often IS impolite.

Americans have too much material wealth and too little purpose (even the so-called "poor").

If anything, your commentary was too kind.