Sometimes all the people involved just kind of do things and lack the mental capacity to second guess their own actions, so they never stop doing those things. Years go by and at some point the acts that the future caretaker considers labors of love, like picking up McDonald's because their daughter's knees are hurting or whatever, become acts of enabling, but they're so tired all the time from being a single mom and working three part-time jobs that they don't realize it. After a few more years they end up coexisting in a state like this and it happens so gradually that they don't remember what it was like to be functional. At that point there might be some hope for them but unfortunately that's when the shekel-grubbers join the party. They dig the obesity hole deeper with expensive medical equipment and drugs, free of cost to the retards but at enormous cost to everyone else. And of course they take advantage with these fat life reality shows as well. So basically I believe it’s laziness and ignorance compounded with greed. Except when it comes to those feeder control freaks which is a different story. It’s difficult to differentiate between the enablers with a misguided sense of duty and the enablers with abandonment issues.