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Comment by agnishom | Hacker News Reader

The author is assuming that everyone will proactively start taking this drug. But I don't understand why? If Jerry is not obese, why would Jerry randomly start taking an anti-obesity drug?

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It's not an "anti-obesity drug" it's a "set your hunger level to whatever you want drug"

If Jerry is a body builder he can get to whatever body fat % he wants.

If Jerry wants to save money or doesn't want to wake up early hungry he can do that too.

If Jerry has religious beliefs about impulses coming from shaitan, he can get rid of them.

Besides, 75% of Americans are overweight/obese that's pretty much everyone.

The number one group of people who will never ever want a powerful appetite suppressant are body builders. Lifting weights isn't hard, eating 6 meals a day is and they don't need to make it ten times harder for no reason.

Many body builders go through bulk and cut phases.

Because the author assumes that the drugs are not only anti-obesity drugs but impulse controlling

Correctly assumes*

But this thread and the article's comment sections have many people saying it doesn't really do that for them.

Well, the author did not reference any actual studies. But some people here have shared an effect on their general impulse control. Do you have any pointers to good studies about this effect?

Even if they are right, do people want to voluntarily start taking drugs to control their impulses? Au contraire, I think a lot of people, either ideologically or subconciously, appreciate the hedonistic lifestyle

It is a bit of a silly proposition, considering that 40% of Americans are obese, and many of that population cannot afford $800-$2000 prescriptions.

It's not silly at all. In 15-20 years this stuff will be <$100 for weeks of use. For many people $800 dollars is less than the they spend on food in the same time

Yup.

The current retail cost in Canada is ~$160 USD per syringe for Ozempic.

How much is Wegovy?

I don't have firsthand experience with Wegovy, but a little googling says $400-600 CAD/month.

That's $277-$425 in USD

That's a bit of a ridiculous assumption to make, given that there are plenty of medications that have cost pennies to make for decades and still retail for hundreds to thousands.

Perhaps in non-US locations it will be that cheap for sure.

The same mechanism: Jerry is not hungry, yet Jerry will eat another slice of pizza.

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