I'm pretty sure I've seen you make this argument before and it's a ridiculous false equivalence.
I have made it before, and that's because it's an extremely good comparison.
In terms of barriers to entry (barring significant pre-existing injury or disability), basic exercise falls closer to brushing one's teeth than it does to something like attaining an education or a well paying job.
In your opinion. You may think basic exercise is easy; quite evidently, other people do not. The evidence is overwhelmingly on my side here -- while the average American continues to be increasingly productive at work and is more educated than ever before, they continue to gain weight. The evidence, therefore, does not suggest people are lazy. Americans work more hours than the average citizen of virtually every other country in the world, and modern Americans are more educated than any American generation in history.
Walking, jogging or running are things nearly all people know how to do. Simple movements such as squats, planks and pushups can be learned in under an hour and require no investment in additional equipment.
The learning, in this case, clearly isn't the hard part. Lifting 400 pounds is also intellectually simple; that's not what makes it hard. It's the physical exertion it requires, obviously. You may find this physical exertion easy; others may find it challenging.
I want to make it clear that I generally don't care if people are overweight, underweight or don't exercise and personally don't give two figs about training for appearance. What I do care about is misinformation. When the "bootstraps" argument gets brought up, it's usually because some has said that in order to be fit and healthy someone "just" has to do x, y or z. This rubs people the wrong way, because if they aren't especially fit and healthy someone claiming they would be if they "just" did x, y or z can be seen to be judging them quite harshly, especially when the focus is often on the outcome (generally an unrealistic body image) instead of the process itself. This is a problem of framing. Instead of "if you want outcome A just do B," it should be "if you want to do B, that's great, be prepared to discover that it's less complex than you might have expected and that if you stick at it you might find yourself approaching outcome A." Just you know, way less stilted than that.
It clearly is quite difficult, because there is an enormous, multi-billion dollar industry that tries to help people lose weight in an huge variety of ways (exercise programs, low calorie program diets like Jennie Craig, specialized diets like low fat or paleo or atkins, some combination of diet and exercise, etc.) and yet people are more overweight than ever. This, again, despite the fact that Americans are clearly willing to work hard both in their jobs and at school compared to counterparts in other countries and compared to their parents (respectively).
What I'm suggesting is that the evidence does not support your suggestion that this is simple and easy. If it was, Americans would be getting better at it, just as we are getting better at virtually everything else, including those things you seem to think are much more difficult. Despite all the tools available at people's disposal, people are getting less fit, not more.
That's pretty convincing evidence that this isn't actually easy. Simply claiming it is flies in the face of the reality we're confronted with. If we're going to speak anecdotally, as you have, well then I personally found school to be quite easy. It requires virtually no physical exertion, and all I have to do is show up to school and I easily pass with good grades, even in hard science classes and even at prestigious Universities. Maybe you find this to be challenging; perhaps, instead, you find exercise to be very easy. That's fine, every person will find some things easy and other things difficult, and it will vary by person. But if we're talking in aggregate, your position simply is not supported by the available evidence.
