Part of me wonders, if the government just bought out a bunch of gyms and made them free for public use. Would the additional people now using the gyms and living healthier save the government long term on healthcare?
You’re basically describing a park. And we have tons of parks all over the country. They are regularly full of people going out to use them for exercise and entertainment. Idk if there’s a correlation between “distance from a public park” and “health outcomes of local residents”. But they’re attractive amenities that people tend to enjoy, even without a numerical cost-savings figure you can use to justify their expense.
Maybe, I do think there’s a difference. A gym exists solely for exercise and clearly people prefer to use them over parks and I assume the health return for time spent is greater for dedicated gyms.
Part of me wonders, if the government just bought out a bunch of gyms and made them free for public use. Would the additional people now using the gyms and living healthier save the government long term on healthcare?
You’re basically describing a park. And we have tons of parks all over the country. They are regularly full of people going out to use them for exercise and entertainment. Idk if there’s a correlation between “distance from a public park” and “health outcomes of local residents”. But they’re attractive amenities that people tend to enjoy, even without a numerical cost-savings figure you can use to justify their expense.
Maybe, I do think there’s a difference. A gym exists solely for exercise and clearly people prefer to use them over parks and I assume the health return for time spent is greater for dedicated gyms.
There are parks with full blown gym setups in them. All body weight exercises and resistance machines, for practical reasons. But they exist.